Sakura Story
by fallenangelkimmy
Summary: sorry about the crappy title Sakura is about to go on a mssion to find Sasuke. But letting her anger get the better of her isn't helping things, the sound village is up to something and why is Ataksuki following her? Sequel - 'struggling sakura' is up!
1. Happy Birthday

**(A/N - The title sucks i know but i worked hard on the story so i hope you like it, please read and reveiw because it's my first fanfic. thankyou!**

**Sadly... i don't own Naruto. -cries-) **

**xXKimmYXx**

Sakura placed the last kunai in her little black pouch before zipping it up and tying it around her hips. She was wearing her usual red dress with black under shorts. She sighed and stared to the calendar, which she'd hung up opposite her bed in her bedroom. She stood up from the bed and stepped up to the calendar. She traced her finger to the date, she sighed, "Today's my birthday and I get sent on a mission." She said ripping the page from the calendar. "Sixteen today." She muttered picking up her backpack. "Sasuke better not waste our time today."

Sakura met Naruto at the front gate, "Are we ok to go?" she asked. Naruto nodded, he was standing straight with a broad smile on his face.

Naruto was now a head and shoulders taller than Sakura, is blonde spikes were the same as they'd always been, Sakura had grown her hair long again, it reached her lower back now. She'd tied it in a high bobble and used her forehead protector as a hair band like she'd always done.

"We're going to bring Sasuke home today!" shouted Naruto on top of his voice. Sakura sighed, "Yeah sure." She replied. Naruto stared at her for a moment. He perked up even more and started going through his pockets, he produced a small pink wrapped box with a big purple bow on it; "Happy birthday Sakura-chan!" he yelled. I smiled slightly and unwrapped the gift. "Naruto…" I said in wonder as I pulled the black choker from the box. It had two pink Sakura flowers hanging off it, one was pink and one was black. "How much did you pay for this?" she asked. Naruto shrugged, "Don't worry about that, do you like it?" Sakura leaped forwards and tightly hugged Naruto, "Thank you!" she said. "At least someone remembers my birthday." She put the chocker on and smiled. The two of them had just passed their Jounin exam. They were both being considered for the ANBU black ops. They were both considered more than skilled enough for the job.

The two of them were walking down the path away from Konoha whilst talking. "I mean after mum and dad went MIA everyone sort of forgot about me. Except you Tsunade-sama and Kakashi, of course." Naruto looked down sadly, "Well, you're not alone Sakura remember that." He said. Sakura smiled, "Thanks."

_**Hell yeah! That necklace looks awesome on us!**__Inner me? What do you want? I thought you left._ _**I got lonely; you know it does get lonely being your alternate personality and all. I missed you!**__Ok just don't be so loud you'll give me a headache!__** Sorry! I'll shut up… HELL YEAH I'M BACK!**__ SHUT UP! __**Oh sorry.**_

"Sakura?" asked Naruto, "You spaced out…" Sakura looked up at him and smiled, "Sorry I just, had a headache." She replied. Naruto nodded slowly, "So do you think Sasuke is coming back? I mean he was spotted a few times near the village so…"

"I wouldn't keep your hopes up." She replied, cutting him off.

_**Hey I thought you loved Sasuke…**__Not any more, I'm getting tired of this! If he tries to run away this time… __**We'll kick his ass! **__Yeah sure…_

"What's up with all of the depression today, it's your birthday remember?"

"Sasuke keeps on trying to kill us remember?" she replied and walked ahead of Naruto. Naruto sighed, "Sakura-chan, cheer up or you'll make me sad." Sakura paused as Naruto carried on walking, "BAKA!" she shouted jumping on his back and pushing him to the ground. They'd made it to a clearing. Sakura had just missed a shuriken flying towards them. She got off Naruto and stayed in a crouching position. Naruto slowly got to his feet. "It's Sasuke." Explained Sakura scanning the area closely. Naruto narrowed his eyes, "SASUKE!" he called.

_**Could the Baka **_**be**_** any louder? **__Look who's talking!_

Sakura pulled out a kunai, "Naruto shut up!" she hissed. Naruto looked to her and ducked as a flood of shuriken sped towards them. Sakura was blocking them with two kunai and dodging them. Naruto was just dodging them.

Sakura felt a sharp pain to her side. "Damn it!" she said in surprise. It had been years since anyone had even nicked her with a shuriken or kunai. She stumbled backwards. The shuriken had cut through her side; she was bleeding. "Sakura?" questioned Naruto. A shuriken went into his arm. He disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sakura smiled, she jumped into one of the surrounding trees still blocking the shuriken with one kunai and holding her side with her free hand. She paused on the tree branch and healed herself. Sasuke appeared in the clearing. Sakura could sense Naruto nearby. Sasuke turned to look directly at Sakura, "That's a dumb hiding place. You're still useless." he said. Sakura narrowed her eyes, "Who said I was hiding?" she asked jumping from the tree and punching the ground as hard as she could. Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke as the force of Sakura's fist sent large pieces of earth into the air.

"Still pathetic." Muttered Sasuke he was leaning against a tree. "Still playing useless games." Replied Sakura. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "You don't understand…"

"I don't understand what it's like to hate someone because they took everything from you? Is that what you were going to say? I understand fine!" She was angry, very angry.

_**HELL YEAH, you tell him!**_

Sasuke huffed, "How could you possibly understand?" Sakura clenched her fists, "My parents were part of the ninja team sent to collect you last year… did you enjoy killing them Sasuke?" Sasuke froze, guilt played across his face slightly.

Naruto jumped in between them, "Sakura!" said Naruto, "Keep your cool, I know you're angry but you're the one that calms me down remember?"

"No wonder her parents died," stated Sasuke, the guilt had disappeared, "If they were nearly as week as you a genin level could have taken them out."

"Sasuke…" said Naruto, obviously shock at Sasuke's venomous words. Sakura pulled out two kunai, one of them she threw at Naruto, it hit him in the back and he disappeared in a puff of smoke, she then threw the other kunai at Sasuke. He also turned into a puff of smoke. Sakura retreated into a good hiding place. She masked her chakra, something she'd learnt from Tsunade.

_He's going to pay! __**You know you're supposed to be all forgiving remember?**__ He doesn't deserve forgiveness. __**I've been telling you that for years but even I have to admit you're letting anger get the better of us, we'll die if you don't calm down! **__If I die avenging my parents then it's worth dying for! __**BAKA! You're going to get your ass kicked, haven't you noticed who you're starting to sound like? The emo king himself. **__Shut up! I'm nothing like him! __**You're in denial you've got to snap out of this revenge crap and hurt him, if you paralyse him then you can think of revenge after the fight ok? **__Fine, but I'm getting revenge after this. __**Baka! You're not the type.**_

Sakura looked up, Naruto was next to her, "Cool it!" he hissed at her. Sakura nodded, "Sorry, I'm calm now."

"You promised me you wouldn't try to take revenge, remember?"

"I know; I'm fighting for real now ok? I'll hold my emotions." She whispered looking at the clearing. Naruto nodded, "Shall we summon?" he asked, Sakura nodded. "I've got a plan."

Sasuke sent another clone into the clearing, he sighed when a shadow jumped onto the branch behind him, "God observation skills Naruto, for once you got it right." He said. He stabbed a kunai backwards; Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke. _I'll take out the weakest first, Sakura will just get in the way, I'll take her out and than focus on Naruto._ He thought. He jumped from the tree and tried to sense Sakura's chakra, _ran away huh?_ He sneered when he couldn't sense her. Suddenly the ground beneath his feet started to shake. Three pairs of hands grasped Sasuke's legs and pulled him into the ground. "What the…" the tree behind him was uprooted and pushed down towards him. Sasuke completed a series of complicated hand seals and spat fire at the tree. The tree burnt to ash before it hit him. Sakura jumped into the clearing and performed a series of hand signals, "Sakura-Kuro: chain blaze!" she called. She disappeared in a flourish of black cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms filled the entire clearing. Sasuke couldn't see passed the cherry blossoms, and his Sharingen wasn't working well. He felt a blow to the stomach, _that must have been Naruto._ He thought; a kunai hit him in the stomach. He gasped and coughed. The clones still held him tightly below the ground. The black cherry blossoms disappeared and Sakura was left standing in their place. She tried to throw another three shuriken at him. Sasuke pulled out a sword from his back and block them; he cut the hands away from his feet and stood to stare at Sakura. "You picked up a new jutsu." He observed gesturing to the fallen black cherry blossoms on the ground. "Happy birthday by the way." He gasped when he noticed the blood dripping from Sakura's thumb.

"MAILA!" shouted Sakura jumping into the air. A giant humming bird hovered behind Sakura as she leaped onto it's back. Before Sasuke had time to react a giant fox jumped on him and flattened him beneath his paw. Sakura was running low on chakra, "Sakura?" asked the humming bird, her voice was soft and worried, "I'm fine Maila; I'm just low on chakra."

"Miss Sakura, I'll keep you away from fighting until you're chakra returns." Said the humming bird. "NO!" replied Sakura, "I'll help."

"I'm sorry miss Sakura but master Naruto ordered it." The hummingbird flew off, Sakura tried to jump off but the hummingbird flew so high that Sakura would die from the fall. "Stupid bird!" she said angrily, "Let me down!"

"I am sorry miss Sakura but Master Naruto…"

"Isn't the one who summoned you, I am, now do as I say Maila!" The bird stopped replying.

Sakura sighed, "Fine." She replied. She looked down and noticed that Sasuke had summoned a giant snake. Sakura looked back to the hummingbird and then jumped off her back.

She landed onto the back of the snake and punched its head as hard as she could. The snake went to the floor with a huge ground quaking crash and an up rise of dust. As Sakura was regaining her balance she felt something pierce through her shoulder. She gagged on her breath and then fell forwards.

Naruto landed on the ground easily as the fox disappeared. The snake had caught him by surprise and taken the Kyubi down in one bite. He covered his nose from the dust and then noticed Maila disappear. He frowned then looked back to the snake, it disappeared as well and all that was left was Sakura on her hands and knees. A sword was through her shoulder Sasuke was standing over her, holding the sword in his hands shakily. He removed he blade and Sakura fell forwards. She fell flat out on the ground; her chakra was too low for her to heal herself. "SAKURA!" shouted Naruto. He ran towards her but Sasuke jumped in his way, Sakura's blood was dripping off his sword, "Sasuke…" muttered Naruto. Sasuke's guilt was visible, "She was in the way." He said quietly. Naruto felt anger boil deep in his stomach, a red chakra started to take over his body.


	2. wake up dammit

**(A.N. Hi another chapter, yay! please read and review.)**

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Sakura opened her eyes into slits she looked around her. The ground was destroyed; the clearing had been reduced to dirt and singed trees. She moved her left arm, but cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

_Oh yeah the stab wound. __**Baka! That hurt! **__How long were we out for? __**A while, Naruto and Sasuke started a full out grudge match after you were 'killed' have you got your chakra back yet? **__No I can't feel any strength. Damn it! That sword must have stopped my chakra flow temporarily… at least I hope it's temporary. __**GET UP DAMMIT! Naruto could be in trouble… or in need of the kiss of life. **__Don't be disgusting he's my best friend! __**He's also hot! **__You've got a one-track mind. __**And you're going to die unless you stand up BAKA! **_

Sakura slipped her knees underneath her chest and picked herself off the ground, she felt the pain from her wound but kept going until she could stand fully, she stumbled and clasped her shoulder. She walked wearily to the middle of the clearing and noticed that a long line of destroyed forest, singed trees and damaged ground were her only trail to finding Naruto and Sasuke.

She stumbled along the trail falling over every so often and getting back up. There was a trail of blood behind her. "I won't die!" she growled forcing her legs to move forwards.

She felt a slight amount of chakra begin to return to her she, sighed with relief; it was only temporary.

_I can't believe I got hurt so easily. __**It's because you were angry. **__It's because I'm weak! I have to get stronger. __**So you can kill Sasuke? **__No. So I can live with myself. __**Aw I'd live with you even if you were as weak as a genin! **__Not you Baka! I will not be labelled the weak member of team seven anymore I'm going to find Naruto and make sure this wounds heal, as soon as my chakra comes back I'm going to get stronger than Naruto and Sasuke put together. __**But Naruto and Sasuke are at a bit of an advantage… Naruto steals power from a demon and Sasuke has a curse seal, if it were under normal circumstances you'd have surpassed them ages ago! **__I don't need some demon or curse seal to become strong. All I need is to train harder than I normally do, I am not useless and I am _not _weak… and I certainly will NEVER get beaten this badly AGAIN! __**Whoa… deep, but first we need to survive this wound and your chakra isn't coming back fast enough for you to heal it before you die of blood loss. **__I'll find something to help me. __**First you have to stand up, you haven't even noticed you've fallen over… this is bad, this is really bad, this is REALLY, REALLY BAD! **__SHUT UP! It's fine. _

Sakura lifted herself off the ground. She stepped forwards again.

_**You're running out of blood you know. **__I know._

She made it to a clearing there was no trail of destruction this time, but two bodies lying limp in the middle of the clearing, one in orange clothing and one in blue. "Oh no." Sakura whispered almost falling to her knees. She managed to keep her balance; she stumbled over to the orange figure first. She almost fell on top of him but caught herself before she had the chance; she pushed herself so that she was kneeling next to him, "He's wounded badly." She said, "I have just enough chakra to heal his really bad wounds." She said.

_**Don't do that Baka! You're low enough on blood as it is, healing him will just… kill us off!**__ Sorry inner me, but I've got to do it, he has a dream remember? __**So do you! What happened to, I'll get stronger? **__This wont kill me don't worry._

Sakura healed Naruto's fatal wounds then slowly managed to get to her feet. She noticed Sasuke standing up as well. Sasuke was as injured as Sakura was, but he wasn't losing as much blood.

They stared at each other for a few moments, "How did you survive that?" asked Sasuke. He was slumped over a deeply bleeding wound on his side; he's just come out of the second stage of the cursed seal. "You still don't get it Sasuke do you?" she asked him, hatred burning deep in her voice.

_**Kill him for what he did to us! **__And for what he did to Naruto. __**And our parents!**_

Sakura pulled out a kunai and threw it at him. It scraped Sasuke's side and he was sent spiralling to the ground. "I'm n-not as weak as you like to think Sasuke." She managed to keep standing. Sasuke threw shuriken at her. Sakura dodged painfully and threw five kunai at him; three hit his arm two got lodged in a nearby tree.

_**Still bad at throwing kunai I see. **__Give me a break I'm dying here. __**Oh yeah, sorry.**_

Sakura narrowed her eyes. Sasuke tried to get to his feet and failed. "I'm taking you back to Konoha." She said. Sasuke smiled and laughed hoarsely. Sakura stared at him questioningly. Sasuke looked up at her, "There's no Konoha left, Sakura!" he said. "Orochimaru just executed a surprise attack and destroyed Konoha. And you were out chasing me the entire time it was being destroyed!"  
"BAKA!" she shouted, "Don't lie to me!"

"Why would I lie to you when you look so pathetic?"

The two grew silent; both of them became aware of two major sources of chakra very close to them. Sasuke laughed again, "I hope you die as painfully as your parents did." He hissed. Sakura froze the tears in her eyes with the ice-cold stare she fixed on him, "What happened to you Sasuke?" she asked, "You call me pathetic, I'm not the one lying on the floor too weak from his wounds to stand. You're only saying these things because you're dying and you don't want me to see you're weak side." Sasuke gritted his teeth and clenched his cut and bruised hands into fists. "You're stupid if you think that!"

"You're still a child Sasuke." She said.

In a sudden gust of wind her hair swept around her, it was then that she noticed her hair was untied from its ribbon. "Are you going to die there, Sasuke?" she asked him. Sasuke was having trouble staying awake, "I won't die until I kill him!" he snarled. Sakura swayed slightly, "You wont get the chance Sasuke. Thanks to you I'm the last Haruno alive. And if you carry on pissing me off like this I might keep you alive so that I can kill you again!" Sasuke snorted, "Like you could you're more than half dead!" Sakura pulled out another shuriken, "I can still kill you." She said pulling her hand back to throw it.

"Sakura…" mumbled a soft voice from behind her. Sakura turned slightly to see Naruto talking in his sleep. He'd never forgive her for killing Sasuke. She dropped the shuriken to the ground. Sasuke laughed, Sakura picked up another two kunai and threw each one at his ankles. Sasuke was pinned to the ground he screamed in pain. "If you so much as touch Naruto, I'll be back!" she said. She ran towards the high sources of chakra she felt stumbling, it was her last hope of helping Naruto.

Itatchi frowned as he and Kisame listened in on the conversation between the pink haired girl and Itatchi's brother. "She's still running after such a fatal wound." Observed Kisame, "That sword your brother has is supposed to drain chakra upon contact. Not as powerful as my sword of course but she shouldn't be alive."

"She's strong." Agreed Itatchi. They didn't hide from her when she almost ran straight into Itatchi, "Naruto needs…" she paused when she saw whom she was speaking to.

_Great, out of the frying pan and into the fire. __**Just kick their Asses; we can do it! **__Are you that much of an idiot, I'm almost dead! __**So? That didn't stop us from kicking Sasuke's ass!**__ Baka!_

Sakura looked up to Itatchi Uchiha, he seemed very amused; "She has two personalities." He observed. Sakura frowned in confusion, "H-how…" She shook her head to try and rid the spots from her eyes, "Naruto!" She suddenly remembered her silent promise to protect him. "You won't get Naruto!" she yelled. Kisame laughed, "We're not after the Kyubi." He said. Sakura glared at him, "What…"

"We were on another mission but the fight caught our attention." Explained Itatchi coldly. Sakura looked to her shoulder, she'd lost too much blood.

"You stink of blood." Confirmed Itatchi, Kisame nodded. "Why haven't you killed me yet?" demanded Sakura. Itatchi frowned, "Good question." He said grasping her wounded shoulder causing her to gasp in pain. He activated Mangekyo Sharringan and Sakura Sakura was immediately in the genjutsu.

Kisame watched as Itatchi dropped the unconscious Sakura to the ground. "You really think she'll be of use to us?" asked Kisame. Itatchi shrugged, he picked up Sakura and placed her over his shoulder; "If leader has been watching her then she must be of use."

"But her strength is her will to survive and protect, how can that be of use to us?"

"We'll have to see what happens when we get back to the base."

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**(A.N. well the end of another chapter… I hope you liked it, anyway please review and sorry for skipping the Sasuke + Naruto fight, but I couldn't think of what to put for it. Anywho if you're reading this PLEASE give me some reviews so I know I'm not wasting my time with this and I know how to make it better.)**

** Thankoo**

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	3. Konoha?

Naruto slowly opened his eyes; he sniffed the air. Sasuke was lying on the ground, kunai pinning him there, he was only just conscious. Naruto sat up his wounds had almost healed. He saw three ninja running towards him.

"Ino?" he questioned getting to his feet painfully. Ino, Shikimaru and Choji were running towards them. "Thank heaven you made it!" shouted Ino kneeling next to him and healing the rest of his wounds.

"How did you find us?" asked Naruto. Ino looked behind her, "The destroyed forestry was enough of a clue, but the line of blood gave it away, where's Sakura?" she asked.

Naruto looked to the ground, "Sasuke… he stabbed her, she died." Tears started to fill his eyes; Ino froze in shock at the loss of her best friend. "Didn't you see her back there?" Choji and Shikimaru had moved to Sasuke, "No. There was a huge puddle of blood but it then turned into a trail and lead us to here."

"Sakura got up." Said a weak voice. Shikimaru glared down at Sasuke. "What do you mean?" asked Ino, she was openly sobbing.

Sasuke sneered, "She came here, shortly after our fight, I was still awake but couldn't move much, my sword had temporarily cut off her chakra flow. She used the last of her chakra to heal Naruto and by some miracle didn't die on the spot." Sasuke sighed, "She then fought me and managed to pin me to the ground, then ran after a presence in the forest to find help for Naruto."

"So she's alive?" stated Ino hopefully. Sasuke shrugged, "She probably died looking for help the presence we sensed was very powerful. Plus she'd lost a lot of blood. The fact that she was standing after I first gave her the wound is amazing. She's still weak though, she could've saved herself but instead she healed Naruto."

Naruto looked downwards in guilt. Ino wiped her eyes, "I have to tell you something." She said to Naruto. "Konoha's gone." Said Shikimaru staring at the ground.

"WHAT!" shouted Naruto grasping Ino's shoulders, "How?" Ino was crying, "We were attacked by surprise we don't know how many survived yet, we found Tsunade injured and Shizune healing her. Naruto we were attacked by Sound ninja and didn't have any time to react, so far the only team we know have survived are you guys… but even Sakura might… be…" She broke down in tears and Choji ran to her side and hugged her closely.

"We have to go back and help the village." Said Choji. Naruto shook his head, "But Sakura-chan-"

"Is probably dead by now, get over it dobe!" said Sasuke. Ino ran over to him and kicked him in the face. "SHUT UP!" she shouted.

Sasuke was knocked out and Ino clenched her fists, "We have to get back to the village and help." Said Choji. Ino nodded assertively, "Naruto and I will find and heal Sakura, after we're finished we'll return to the village to help ok?" Shikimaru sighed, "Fine," his attention turned to Naruto, "Don't kill each other ok?" He started walking ahead.

Ino kissed Choji goodbye and Choji fixed Naruto with a glare, "Look after her, and keep your hands to yourself!" he said. Ino shuddered and Naruto pretended to gag, "Hell no!" they said in unison. Choji waved before picking up Sasuke and running to catch up with Shikimaru.


	4. Kunoichi on the run

Sakura slowly opened her eyes.

_We're alive? __**HELL YEAH WE'RE ALIVE! **__I wish you wouldn't do that. Didn't we run into Itatchi? And then get trapped in that really bad genjutsu thing? __**DAMN RIGHT WE DID! **__So then why are we still alive? Did he accidentally forget to kill me? __**THE BAKA. BAKA. BAKA. BAKA. BAKA! **__Shut up! My chakra's back for the time being… why don't we find Naruto and then paralyse Sasuke. Speaking of paralysis why is my shoulder not hurting? __**What does that have to do with paralysis? **__I don't know. _

Sakura looked to her shoulder, it was bandaged up, "huh?" she said removing the bandages and pressing her hand against it, healing it the rest of the way.

She looked to her surroundings; she was in a room, and a very nice room at that. The walls were coated in deep purple paint. A window was right next to a large stained oak door. Sakura then realised that the bed she was lying in was coated in the same shade of purple. The silk sheets were wrapped around her body loosely.

"Where the Hell am I?" she asked herself swinging her legs over the end of the bed, her foot caught in the sheets and she fell flat on her face.

"OW." Her voice was muffled against the cream coloured carpet. She pushed herself to her feet. To see a tall figure standing in the doorway, she paused at the sight of his red eyes. "Sasuke?" she questioned gaining a fighting stance.

_**If it is him, we'll kill him! HELL YEAH! He's going down!**_

Sakura's hands moved in a protective stance waiting for him to attack; the room was the normal size of a bedroom.

The figure stepped out of the shadow of the doorway. Sakura hesitated, "Itatchi!" she questioned and stated at the same time. The Uchiha murderer was joined in the doorway by Kisame, his blue skin and shark like features looking threatening.

"I don't think starting a fight with two Akatsuki members is a good idea Haruno Sakura." Said Itatchi stepping towards her. He underestimated her. Sakura punched towards him.

Just as she expected Itatchi dodged and tried to grasp her wrist, but she stamped on the ground as hard as she could and caused the floor to quake. Itatchi lost balance and Sakura hit him square in the face before charging through the glass of the window.

She was on the second story of a large building. She landed without hurting herself and stood up. Glass gashes were all over her body.

She looked up to see a giant white bird circling above her. A white unrealistic spider fell from the giant bird. Sakura gasped and leaped away from the spider, just dodging the explosion. She took a moment to look up at the bird.

Deidara looked down on the pink haired blur as she started running. "She's fast." He muttered. He paused as he caught a glimpse of a puppet. _So Sasori heard her escape too. Not the stealthiest girl._

Sakura could see a high wall in front of her. Explosives landed on the wall. Sakura paused. "I wouldn't climb that if I were you, yeah." called Deidara from the clay bird. Sakura jumped away from a blade that went towards her. She landed in a primitive crouch and noticed the puppet. She got up and dodged another attack she spun around and punched the wall as hard as she could.

A huge part of the wall collapsed and Sakura disappeared into the dust. Deidara noticed Sasori get caught in the dust and chose to follow the medic-nin.

Sakura was out of breath; she heard the wings of the bird following her. She looked ahead and noticed the thick forest she'd been fighting with Sasuke in.

She sprinted towards the forest and jumped into the cover of the trees. As she was hopping desperately from branch to branch, she completed a number of hand seals. "Sakura-Kuro (black Sakura): forest infection!" she called. Black cherry blossoms swept across the scene covering her tracks and wrapping around the trees and plants in the forest. Sakura's eyes had started to glow a deep black.

_**HELL YEAH! They'll regret the day that they took us! **__Sh I have to concentrate._

Deidara noticed the swirl of black cherry blossoms, "Whoa." He said. He was wearing a mike. "What is it?" asked Sasori, he was walking towards the forest, covered in dust. "Don't go in there!" ordered Deidara, "She's put some sort of jutsu on the forest." He noticed the trees begin to move, they were pulsing as if they were breathing, "No way…" said Deidara.

"What?" asked Itatchi. Deidara's bird was almost hit by a tree branch, he made the bird fly higher; "She's brought the forest to life, yeah." He replied.

"She's good." Admitted Kisame.

"I can see why leader was interested in her." Observed Itatchi. "Do I wait for her chakra to run out or what?" asked Deidara.

"We're not going to catch her." Declared Sasori, "She's probably already escaped by now."

"What then?" Kisame asked.

"We know where she'll be going, she's predictable. We'll cut her off and this time we'll restrain her better." Explained Itachi. The other members agreed. "Yeah KISAME!" said Deidara.

"I didn't think the girl would immediately try to escape ok?" came Kisame's reply.

Sakura had been running for three days, after hiding in the forest she'd used the tree roots to dig her an escape rout. She was already very near Konoha; she was close to the top of the mountain where the faces of the Hokage's were carved.

During a rest in her run Sakura had stopped to buy (well steal considering Akatsuki took her weapons AND money) clothes to cover up her scent from the Akatsuki. She was wearing a black vest and a white miniskirt with under shorts on and black ninja boots. Her hair was loose around her. She wore a black and white ribbon on each wrist and the choker Naruto had bought her for her birthday. She'd also stolen weapons, twenty kunai; a set of ten daggers, two short swords –one white and one black-, and a set of twenty shuriken. Her two short swords were held criss-crossed on her lower back by a black and white holster. The kunai were hidden in various places on her arms and legs, and one was attached to her back beneath her hair. The shuriken and daggers were placed in pouches, one of daggers on her left hip and one of shuriken on her right hip.

She paused as her feet reached the near edge of the mountain, she fell backwards; her shoes were full of blood from the cuts on her feet. She'd overused them and was paying for it dearly. She looked over the edge of the mountain and froze in disbelief.

There was nothing, nothing but rubble and debris. The homes were either burnt or reduced to a pile of rubble.

"_No…"_ she whimpered before jumping off the Konoha Mountain and landing perfectly on the ground.

She saw that in a field not too far off there were hundreds of graves, all freshly dug and most of them nameless.

She fought the tears as she noticed a number of sound ninja around the village. She'd been exploring the once beautiful village stealthily and hadn't been caught.

_**Of course we haven't been caught, we're above ANBU remember what Tsunade said to you that day?**__ Yeah. I remember, she said that Naruto and I were above ANBU and if we wanted we could move straight up. __**Why didn't we anyway? **__Because, Naruto didn't want to and I wanted us to move up together he said he wanted a team of his own before he moved up. I wonder if he's ok. __**Me too.**_

"HEY YOU!" shouted a sound Ninja from behind her.

* * *

**(A.N. Hiiiiiiiii I hope you like the story anyway, could someone PLEASE try and come up with a better title for this story???**

**luvoo**

**xXKimmYXx)**

* * *


	5. Mistakes

"HEY YOU!" shouted a sound Ninja from behind her. Sakura turned a look of pure hatred on her face. "She's a Konoha ninja!" shouted the sound ninja. A big group of them surrounded Sakura.

Sakura clenched her fist. "So it _was_ the sound ninja that attacked the village." She stated. The emotion had drained form her face, it happened when she was graced with a great loss or sadness, she hadn't shed a tear since her parent's funeral. She dealt with pain by hiding emotion, forgetting about it.

"You made a big mistake coming home girly." Stated one of the fifteen surrounding ninja. They were all men. They were either Jounin level or ANBU black op level.

Sakura stood perfectly still, "I think you were the ones who've made mistakes, two actually." Her voice was monotonous. A laugh rippled through the sound ninja, "Why don't you tell us cupcake, before we have some fun with you."

A low chuckle exited Sakura's mouth; it was eerily unemotional. "Mistake number one." She said pulling out three daggers. "Coming within five hundred feet of this village." She explained, her voice still monotonous.

By now the ninja had gained fighting stances and were ready to attack. Sakura threw the Daggers, they each hit their targets, although not exactly where she'd aimed them, one hit a sound ninja in the neck, another one was hit in the heart and the third in the lung.

_**Where did you aim? **__Their heads. __**BAKA!**_

The rest of the sound ninja charged her at once. Sakura smiled slightly and pulled out her short swords. She started attacking them, she whipped the blade through one ninja's throat and let the blood spill with one sword and then used the other to slice open a ninja's stomach.

She pulled out five kunai and threw them all. The kunai hit into the ninja's surrounding her and three hit the targets, the other two hit into surrounding piles of rubble a small note with red writing was attached to each of the two kunai.

Sakura dodged attacks and jumped onto a rooftop. She completed a hand seal and the two kunai exploded, killing a further five. The remaining two ninja had jumped up to Sakura's rooftop and carried on attacking her.

Sakura hadn't broken out in a sweat yet. She channelled the chakra into her fist and punched one man off the roof. She then crouched as she stabbed her white short sword through the last man's stomach.

She slowly stood up; she was drenched in blood and didn't care. She brought her blood speckled face inches from the sound ninja she had attached to her sword,

"Mistake number two," she said staring intensely into his eyes as she twisted the sword in his gut. He gagged and coughed up blood, "You thought even for a moment, that I was weak." She tugged the sword from his stomach and let him fall to the ground.

She replaced her swords then jumped back down to the massacre scene she'd caused and picked up her fallen weapons.

She heard the voice of an approaching sound ninja and narrowed her eyes murderously.


	6. The smart Baka!

Sakura had been in the village for half a day killing the remaining sound ninja before she left the village.

She was walking through the destroyed gates when a small clay butterfly battered its wings towards her. "Damn!" she said jumping away from it and throwing a dagger at it. The explosion sent her flying into a tree causing it to splinter the other side. Sakura slowly got to her feet.

"Have fun?" asked a voice before her. Sakura slowly got to her feet. Sasori himself was standing before her, his red hair gleaming in the morning light.

Above her she heard the flapping wings of Deidara's clay bird. She was about to more when two slim blades lodged themselves into the tree behind her, crossing each other right in front of her neck.

"You've been running the whole way here." Observed Sasori. Sakura didn't move in fear of the poisoned blades touching her skin and killing her.

"You got far yeah." Called Deidara jumping from the giant bird and landing next t the two. "We almost lost you a few times yeah." Sakura's eyes were still void of emotion. "You're going to kill me?" she asked monotonously.

"No." the answer came from a few meters away; Sakura couldn't move her head so she looked only with her eyes, giving her a slight view of Itatchi. He was casually leaning against a tree. Sakura closed her eyes then returned them to Sasori; he was, after all, the one holding the blades at her neck.

Itatchi looked so much like Sasuke it hurt. She bit the inside of her lip as she felt emotion come back to her numb body. She bit so hard she felt the blood warm her tongue.

She coughed slightly as she moved her fingers slowly behind her back. She stared at Sasori blankly. She waited for them to begin talking to her again. "We're not going to kill you now unless you-"

Sakura spat her blood onto the blades at her throat. The blades disintegrated into nothing. Sakura sped forwards and punched Sasori in the face with her strength. Sending him spiralling into a tree.

"If you think genjutsu will work Uchiha then you're sadly mistaken." Explained Sakura releasing the genjutsu easily.

_**When did he trap us? **__I'm guessing right after the explosion. __**He's a smart Baka!**_

Itatchi frowned. "Told you it wouldn't work." Said Deidara through the earpiece in Itatchi's ear.

Sakura was standing facing Itatchi her eyes were fixed at his feet. "You're a smart girl." Observed Itatchi, "How did you do that Jutsu?" he asked.

"You probably already know." She replied. Itatchi shrugged. Sakura felt a presence behind her. She spun around quickly producing her short swords. But she was too late. Kisame was towering over her; he swiped his sword above her head and stole her chakra.

Sakura stumbled for a moment, all of a sudden, hundreds of scars started to show across her skin. Kisame paused at the sight. Sakura regained her balance quickly.

"Sakura." Whispered a voice in her ear behind her. Sakura whirled around and accidentally stared right into Itatchi Uchiha's eyes.

Sakura fell limp in his arms. Itatchi picked her over his shoulder. Sasori was leaning against a tree and Deidara was standing by his clay bird. "She's not as strong as us but she's getting there fast." Observed Sasori.

Itatchi raised an eyebrow, "She's the first person to ever execute a jutsu in my genjutsu." He was obviously irritated at her for breaking his genjutsu so easily.

"You know," said Kisame, "If you keep trapping her in that genjutsu she's going to work out how to get out of it." Itatchi stared at his partner for a few moments before starting to walk away, "Hn," he replied.

"Oi, Itatchi." Called Deidara, "I'll take her back to the base, I'll be quicker in case she wakes up again yeah?" Itatchi nodded and passed her to Deidara. Deidara took Sakura off him and placed her on the birds tail feathers, the birds tail feathers closed around her and they flew towards the base.


	7. She's lost it

Naruto and Ino made it to the village gates. "She's not dead." Insisted Ino. Naruto nodded, "We'd have found some trace of her if she was… but we've found nothing at-"

He paused when he saw he village, it was the second time he'd returned since the village was destroyed. The last time he didn't go in because of the sound ninja and he didn't have time to fight them all off.

Ino stared at the village, "What happened to them?" she asked, noticing a pile of bodies all of them were sound ninja.

Naruto sighed, "I think I know." He said. He turned to face Ino with a far away look in his eyes, "It must have been Sakura." He said. Ino's eyes widened, "Wait a minute, Sakura's way to kind hearted to do this kind of massacre!"

"You're not on her team," explained Naruto gravely, "After her parents were killed every now and again she'd become completely emotionless, usually during a fight or after bad news, she gets merciless when she's like that, she scares me a little."

Ino was silent a moment, "Well, she's made our job a little easier, I think that's all the sound ninja in the village. Damn, some of these were ANBU black op level." She gestured to the masks. Naruto nodded slowly, "She's lost it." He said quietly.

Sakura had been put in Itatchi's room; Itatchi was reading a book lying on his bed whilst Sakura slept in a bed across the room from him. He paused at the sound of sobbing. He placed the book on his bed and stepped over to her.

Sakura was crying in her sleep. Her hands and feet were tied in chakra roped, to stop her chakra leaving through her hands and feet. It would stop her using her strength and stop her from using jutsu.

Under her face was a wet patch in the bedding from tears. Itatchi frowned and walked back towards his bed. "Sasuke…" she muttered in her sleep.

Itatchi paused and turned slowly, "Don't walk away from me damn it!" her fists clenched together. She started getting very restless in her sleep, "How could you kill them? Why would you?" She paused and seemed to calm down, Itatchi sat on his bed,

"I'm not as weak as you say." She muttered quietly before settling down again.

Itatchi looked to his book then back to Sakura. "What did he do to her?" he found himself asking silently. "Why do I care?" He heard a knock on the door and stood up.

He paced to the door and opened it inwards. Kisame was standing there; he peered in at the sleeping Sakura. "Has she woken up yet?" Itatchi shook his head. Kisame nodded, "In any case Leader wants to talk with us." Itatchi followed Kisame out of the room and locked the door.

Sakura slowly opened her eyes; she noticed the wet patch on the bed she was lying on. "I was crying in my sleep again." She realised groggily.

She noticed the chakra ropes around her wrists and ankles. "Like this can stop me." She said managing to sit up.

She hopped over to the door and closed her eyes; she managed to channel her chakra into her elbows and bashed the door apart. She began hopping down the hallway.

Itatchi was standing next to Deidara and Sasori. They were talking to a hologram of the leader. "So when she wakes up I want you all to make our proposal. If she refuses, keep her tied up and torture her until she gives in. Is there any chance of her escaping again?"

Deidara shook his head; "We tied her up hands and feet so she can't channel her chakra into them. There's no way she's getting out."

There was a sudden crash. Itatchi sighed, "I think, Deidara, that you're mistaken." He muttered rushing to the door.

Sakura hopped again, she heard a noise behind her and started hopping faster. She was suddenly tackled to the ground. She fell flat on her face. She groaned; her voice muffled by the blue-carpeted floor.

Itatchi walked through the doorway in time to see Sakura get tackled to the ground by Kisame. Deidara winced from behind him as Sakura hit the ground. "Couldn't escape huh?" queried Sasori. Deidara shrugged, "I didn't think she'd try to hop her way out."

Kisame got off Sakura and lifted her off the ground so that her back was facing him. "You really are a determined girl huh?"

"And you're a heavy fish!" snapped Sakura back.

Kisame held her a few feet off the ground; due to his height it wasn't a difficult task. Sakura brought her knees to her chest and kicked backwards as hard as she could. Both of her feet kicked his groin with as much force as she could muster without using her chakra.

_**WOO! GO US!**_

Kisame keeled over and dropped her as he fell to his knees. Sakura tried to keep her balance but toppled over. She heard Deidara chuckle as a clay butterfly landed on her arm.

Deidara had broken out into fits of laughter. Sasori sighed. Itatchi rubbed his temples, "Kisame… you're an idiot." He said. Kisame rolled up into a ball on the ground.

Deidara managed to compose himself and wiped a tear from his eye, "By the way Sakura that's a bomb I made especially for you." He said gesturing to the butterfly, "Because it's beautiful but deadly." He explained with a grin.

Sakura looked to the bomb on her arm. "If you move," explained Deidara, "Then I'll set it off and blow off your arm."

Sakura gritted her teeth, "Why did you abduct me? If I'm supposed to be bait so you can take Naruto you might as well kill me!" she snapped.

Itatchi huffed, "We're not doing that plan any more." He explained in a dull tone, "There were too many complications so Leader shut it down."

"Yeah." Said Deidara, "Like the fact three of the containers were already dead so we couldn't get the plan to work." Sakura relaxed a bit.

_She's loyal,_ thought Sasori as he examined her, _the second she found out we weren't after her friend she calmed._

"So what do you want with me then?" she asked quietly. Deidara smiled and picked her up, "We'll go into a room first." He said. "We'll need to take better precautions though."

Sakura sighed, she was covered in chakra ropes, the only thing that wasn't covered was her head; she looked like she was in a cocoon.

Kisame snickered at her. Bombs were placed all over the ropes and around Sakura. Sakura was hanging from a screw in the wall to stop her from trying to make a run for it. "Don't you think you went a little far?" asked Sasori.

Deidara shook his head, "If we just left her with the ropes she'd probably channel the chakra to her head and head butt her way free.

Leader's hologram was in front of Sakura, "You're quite the escape artist." He observed.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "You know if I weren't tied up here I'd-"

"Don't make idle threats little girl, we wont hurt you unless you deny this request."

Sakura narrowed her eyes as Leader continued, "We want you to join Akatsuki, as a healer and assassin."


	8. persuasion

Sakura was silent, her eyes wide and her jaw slack.

"Um… Haruno?" asked Kisame about to poke her. "No!" shouted Deidara, "You'll set off the bombs."

"Sakura?" asked Deidara waving his hand in front of her face. Sakura snapped out of her shock, "Why would you want _me_?" she asked.

Itatchi was the one to answer before anyone else had a chance, "Because you're strong and have the potential to surpass all of us." He explained lazily.

Sakura was silent once again. "It is clear to me," continued Leader, "That you would make a far better ally than an enemy."

Sakura was seriously considering the offer.

"It's not like you have anywhere to go." Said Sasori, "You're family was probably killed during the attack on Konoha, and your friends."

"My family died last year, and Naruto's still alive."

"We can help you find him, so long as you pledge allegiance to me."

_**We might as well. **__What? __**Well if they'll help us find Naruto… plus we'll get way stronger here and then the next time we see Sasuke we could show him who's the real weak one. **__But… what if there's other Konoha ninja alive, like Tenten, Ino or Hinata? __**You don't think they're alive! Come on! And being in the same organisation as Itatchi will bring Sasuke to us! Then we can be the one to kill him and avenge our family; then we can kill Orochimaru and avenge Konoha. **__But I never wanted to be an avenger-_

"Why is she so quiet?" asked Kisame. Itatchi smirked, "She's talking to herself mentally." He explained.

_**So? Revenge will be our bit on the side, think of the strength; we'd never be labelled weak again. Besides we could leave as soon as we find Naruto. **__That's a dumb idea; they'll just kill us. __**We'll be stronger by then and we'll kick their Asses! Hell yeah! **__Do you have to shout? __**Hell yeah! **__I hate you. __**HELL YE- **__SHUT UP!!!!_

Sakura looked to the leader's hologram, "If I don't accept?" She replied. There was a silence that rippled through the room. "You will be brutally tortured by Itatchi."

"You wont kill me?"

"You'll wish we did."

"Then I guess there's no choice." She made a sudden movement and tried to set off one of the bombs.

Nothing happened. Deidara laughed, "You didn't think I'd be a stupid enough man to put live bombs on you did you?"

"YOU'RE A MAN?!" Deidara slapped his palm to his head.

Sakura closed her eyes; "I guess I'll have to take torture then." She said with a smile. Deidara leaned into Sasori, "Is she insane?"

Sasori stared at her for a moment; he then shrugged in reply, "She could just be dumb."

Itatchi stared at her, he knew otherwise, behind her smile she was shaking, no one could see it but his trained eyes, She was terrified and felt like crying. He stared at her eyes intensely, if they wanted her to join Akatsuki then he'd have to break her mentally and then rebuild her slowly, he could brake her within a few days but the rebuilding may take a few months, and by that time Sakura might not be mentally stable enough to fight for Akatsuki anyway.

"Torturing her wont work." Explained Itatchi, making everyone turn to him, "She'll break down and then we'll have to retrain her, making her practically useless to us."

Deidara nodded in agreement. Sasori coughed to gain the groups attention, "She said her little Kyubi friend is still alive right?" He looked to Deidara's questioning look, "Suppose something terrible were to happen to him, something painful. Maybe we should kill him whilst you watch,"

Sakura's eyes widened, "You wouldn't…"

Leader chuckled to himself, "my dear, we're Akatsuki, there isn't much we wouldn't do." Sakura went morbidly still, she looked to the ground, "Fine." She muttered as images of herself and Naruto went through her mind. "I'll join you so long as you leave him alone."

_**There's quick you changed your mind. **__We made a silent promise to do all we can to protect him remember? __**Oh yeah. **_

The group could tell she was serious and Itatchi cut her down from the ropes. Leader smiled with satisfaction as Sakura sat on the ground, her legs curled either side of her and her head drooped. "Rest up for now Sakura-san, I will have your first mission for you soon." Sakura slowly got to her feet. "Where's my room?" She asked monotonously. "I'll show you." Beamed Kisame.

Naruto was leaning against a tree. Ino was sitting across from him, "Why are they so late?" she questioned loudly. Naruto didn't reply he just looked upwards, deep in thought.

Ino looked to him with a concerned look in her eye, "What?" she asked. Naruto sighed, "Sakura… I'm worried about her."

"Me too, what if Sasuke finds her."

"I'm not worried about her getting hurt, I'm worried about her completely losing it. She did one hell of a massacre back there." Ino nodded feeling slightly queasy at the sight of the bodies.

They both suddenly jumped to their feet when they felt a presence near. Ino pulled out five kunai and Naruto pulled out two shuriken.

A girl around a year older than them with two buns on her head jumped onto a nearby branch. She wore a red silk top, which was covered in blood. She was obviously injured; even the large scroll on her back had blood spattered on it. "Naruto!" she called happily, "Ino!"

Tenten jumped next to Ino and hugged her, "I'm so glad your ok!" She then jumped over to Naruto and hugged him. "I wish I could say the same for you." Muttered Ino looking to Tenten's wounds. "I'll heal you up." Tenten sighed with relief, "Lee and Neji aren't that far behind, we got split up during the attack just beyond the forest and found each other yesterday; I'm the least injured so I scouted ahead."

Neji and Lee jumped onto the branch behind her; they were using each other for support. "I healed them as well as I could but… they were pretty wounded." Ino replaced her kunai and leaped next to the two boys. "Do you know of any other survivors?" asked Naruto. Tenten shook her head, "We went back to Konoha but all we found were dead bodies. Sound ninja. What about Sakura?"

Naruto looked down, "She's disappeared, but all of those sound ninja you saw… she probably killed them all." He didn't need to explain any further to Tenten because she was placed on the team with them when Sakura lost it the first time. She shuddered slightly. "At least we know she's alive." Neji sat thanked Ino with a bow of his head then turned to Naruto and Tenten as Ino started to heal Lee.

"Did you find Uchiha?" Naruto nodded, "I thought he'd killed Sakura, but she somehow managed to heal me and take down Sasuke whilst out of chakra and bleeding heavily. Her blood trail stopped deep into the forest as a puddle and then it just disappeared." Neji nodded sadly in understanding. "Sakura's alive!" said Lee as Ino finished healing him, "I know she is, Sakura is a strong Shinobi and she wouldn't let a little blood loss stop her!" he was met by a silence. "What?" he asked. Ino had moved to Tenten and was healing her.

Neji took a deep breath, "Lee, we know she's alive. For her to kill all of those sound ninja she'd need to be at a good strength. Someone is helping her."

"Maybe she's found a Konoha ninja who's helping her." Suggested Tenten. Naruto shook his head, "We'd have found their body if it was. The last time she lost it, she nearly killed Tenten, Neji and I had to knock her out." The silence grew apart from the regular forest noises.

Ino stood up as she finished healing Tenten. Tenten nodded her thanks. "If we have to knock Sakura out, tie her up and scream at her until she calms down that's exactly what we'll do!" she nodded assertively. Naruto nodded, "Damn right!" he said.

"Naruto?" called a quiet voice from below them. Naruto gasped and looked down. Hinata was struggling; she was half carrying and half dragging an unconscious Kiba. Followed by a worried Akamaru.

Naruto jumped off the branch, "Were you caught up in the invasion too?" he asked. Hinata nodded. One of her arms was broken and Kiba had been healed halfway. "We were fighting the first wave of sound ninja," She lowered Kiba to the ground, everyone in the trees had stopped to listen to her, "I managed to take out all of my targets but I… I couldn't get to Kiba before he was hurt and Shino… Shino didn't…" Naruto hugged her as Hinata broke down in tears, "Shino's dead." She sobbed into his shirt, "I-I tried to… to heal him but I was too late." She was still sobbing when Ino jumped from the tree to inspect Kiba.

Tenten looked down. Neji's eyes were closed, although he did let out a sigh of relief for his cousins safety and Lee for once was deathly silent.  
Hinata managed to compose herself and wiped her tears, "Did anyone else survive?" Naruto looked down, "So far it's us Tsunade, Shizune, Choji and Shikimaru." Hinata closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "They really caught us off guard." She said looking to Kiba as Ino healed his wounds.

"Ino!" called Shikimaru running towards them with Choji bounding behind him. "What's up?" asked Naruto. Ino stood up then stumbled. Hinata caught her and sat her down. "Sorry, I need a rest." Admitted Ino, she'd used up too much Chakra.

"Sasuke escaped." Explained Shikimaru, "He knocked out Choji when he was on a lunch break and ran for it."

"Damn it!" said Naruto. Shikimaru nodded in agreement, "But we did find out that Tsunade-sama and Shizune have made it to the village of sand safely, we should look for survivors and report there immediately. I explained the Sakura issue and Tsunade-sama said that if we didn't find her whilst looking for survivors then we should report back to the village of sand without her." Naruto sighed then nodded sharply. Ino looked up deeply saddened by he loss of so many friends.

"Lets go!" said Naruto, his voice full of determination, "I'll carry Kiba." Hinata nodded her thanks. Choji stepped up to Ino, "I'll carry you ok until you rest up."

"Thank you Choji." Said Ino. Neji, Lee and Tenten jumped from the trees. "We will make our youthful journey straight away!" shouted Lee. He picked up Hinata, Hinata gasped from shock, "Lee give it a rest." Said Tenten.

Lee just smiled at her broadly. Neji activated his Byakogan. "Hinata." He said. Hinata looked to him, "I'm glad you're well." He said. Hinata nodded and smiled, "I'm glad you're well too brother." She replied.

Neji looked to her, "You need to rest before you heal your arm and activate Byakogan." He stated. Hinata nodded again. Lee leaped forwards and onto a tree branch causing Hinata to scream quietly and grasp his neck in shock. The group of Shinobi followed after Lee and Hinata.

Sakura took a deep breath; she was trapped in a very powerful genjutsu. Itatchi was standing in front of her, "You can give in at anytime." He reminded her.

Sakura shook her head again. Itatchi had a sword in her stomach; she was taking the pain very well considering she'd been in the genjutsu for what felt like a day.

She gasped as another stab hit into her. Itatchi sighed and threw the sword to the ground, "You're doing well at this genjutsu training." He observed. "Are you ready for level five?"

Sakura was tied to a cherry blossom tree in the genjutsu. She nodded shakily, "Go for it." She ordered as she psyched herself up for it.

She saw the image of her parents standing behind Itatchi. He stepped to her side, "Let's go over a few memories shall we?" he asked.

Sakura didn't reply she just stared at them. Her mother's light hair and her slight smile almost bringing a tear to Sakura's eyes. Her eyes were bright green. Sakura's father was a tall man; he had short red hair and a smug expression, his dark eyes smiling at his daughter.

Sakura wanted to hug her parents but she knew Itatchi wouldn't let her enjoy his training/torturing genjutsu.

Sakura looked down, her lips were quivering, "You're one twisted son-of-a-bitch!" she snarled. Itatchi didn't reply, "You can give in."

"I wont give in! I'm going to beat this level just like the rest and wipe that annoying little smirk off your face!"

"Is that so? We'll see about that." Her parent's faded away and the scene changed, _Sakura was still tied to the tree but she could see herself running into a room. Tsunade stood in front of her, "Sakura, you don't want to see them."_

"_I have to see them!" her face was once again void of emotion. "Sakura please just-" Sakura slapped Tsunade's hand away as she tried to comfort her. Sakura ran passed her sensei and through the double swinging doors into the morgue. She paused; Tsunade stepped in after her. _

Sakura closed her eyes, "Ok stop it." She said. Itatchi frowned, "You know I can't until the memory's over Sakura." Sakura couldn't help but stare at the scene before her. It was imprinted on her memory. "Itatchi stop it!" she insisted. "I can't Sakura." _Her parents were burnt, terribly burnt. They were almost unrecognisable. Sakura's voice was shaky and quiet when she spoke, "Who did this?" she asked. Tsunade stepped up behind her, "Sakura just calm-"_

"_WHO DID THIS!" she shouted in her sensei's face. Tsunade kept her anger inside as she stared at Sakura's rage filled face. "We believe it was…" her voice trailed off._

"_Sasuke-kun." Sakura whispered her face dropping into a grave realisation. Tsunade nodded slowly. _

_Sakura stared at her parent's bodies one more time before moving her hands into a hand seal and disappearing in a puff of smoke. Tsunade ran to the window, "Damn!" she said as she saw Sakura running away from the hospital building. She turned to the door "SHIZUNE!" she shouted._

_Sakura ran passed the ramen shop, Naruto saw her pass and dropped his bowl of ramen, "SAKURA!" he called sprinting after her. _

_Sakura was running for the main gates of Konoha. Naruto caught up to her and spun her around so that he was in the way of the gates, "Sakura… what happened."_

"_Sasuke's going to die!" she shouted. Naruto held her shoulders, "What are you talking about?"_

"_He killed them!"_

"_Killed who?" His blue eyes were sparkling with concern for his best friend. Sakura pushed passed him and began running again. _

_Naruto ran after her and circled his arms around her waist in an attempt to stop her from running away, "Calm down." He said. Sakura was fighting against him, _

"_Sasuke!" she shouted, "Why?" rain began to fall from the sky as she started screaming. She went slightly limp and Naruto let go of her waist. _

_Sakura fell to her knees holding her hand over her heart. Tears dropped to the ground uncontrollably as Naruto kneeled behind her and touched her back comfortingly. _

_She turned to him and started crying into his shirt, "They're gone." She whimpered into his clothes. Naruto hugged her, he was on his knees in front of her, "It'll be ok, Sakura. Just let it out." He said comfortingly. _

_Sakura clutched at his clothing as Tsunade and Shizune ran up behind them. Naruto nodded to them as she cried. Tsunade nodded a thank you. Shizune cupped her hands nervously. _

Sakura was pulled from the genjutsu. She looked up at Itatchi; he was holding his head. "Sorry." He muttered, "But you asked for it." Sakura stood up from him. They were sitting outside in the training grounds. Sasori was watching them, because he was bored, "What happened?" he asked. Itatchi stood up, "She's just completed her genjutsu resistance training." He explained. Sakura stepped away from him. "What did you do to her?" asked Sasori. Itatchi stood up, She relived her most painful memory. She asked me to stop after I'd started to show it to her but it was impossible."

Sakura met Deidara in the hallway. "You look half dead yeah." Said Deidara. Sakura leaned against the wall and held her head, "I'm just really getting the genjutsu training side effects that's all." She explained before walking passed him dismissively. "Hey Sakura-oniisan?" he called. Sakura turned, "What?"

"You want to grab lunch together yeah? Eating helps trust me." Sakura felt a warm feeling towards her murderous comrade when she saw his smiling face. "Ok." She said and changed direction to walk next to him.

"I know how we can get Itatchi back for the harsh training." He offered as they walked through the double doors towards the kitchen. Sakura paused, "How?" she asked. Deidara raised an eyebrow playfully, "All we have to do is…"

Tsunade looked to the small number of Shinobi in front of her. "They took that many lives?" she questioned.

Naruto, Choji, Shikimaru, Hinata, Ino, Kiba, Akamaru, Neji, Tenten and Lee all stood before her. "We looked everywhere for survivors," explained Hinata, "We couldn't find anymore." Naruto sighed, "Sakura's also missing." He explained. Tsunade nodded slowly. Shizune had her eyes closed in mourning.

Temari walked down the hallway followed by Kankuro. "You can't just barge in there when she's holding a meeting." He said. Temari huffed, "My friends might be in there, I want to know if they survived or not!" Kankuro grasped his sister's arm, "Temari… calm down please."

Temari blinked away tears, "Kankuro they're all my best friends, I have to know." Kankuro hugged his sister, "You're not the only one who's worried ok? Now calm down and wait. Please."

Temari cried onto her brother's shoulder, "If he took any of them from me… I'll destroy the whole village."

"Temari." The voice came from behind her. Temari turned to see her younger brother behind her. He'd grown taller than her and looked to be older in his Kazakage robes.

Temari wiped her tears and looked to Gaara, "Yes?" Gaara ignored his sister's tears and turned to the door, "Tsunade-sama wanted me to be present at the meeting, come on." Tsunade nodded her thanks and composed herself before following Gaara into the room.

Tsunade looked up as Gaara and Temari walked into the room. Temari had obviously been crying. Tsunade nodded to her equal. Gaara nodded in greeting then looked to Naruto, the two shared a glance before attention was turned back to Tsunade.

"I have news on Haruno Sakura." She said. All of the ninja's before her, except Gaara, held an indrawn breath. "I have reason to believe that she's been captured… and killed by Akatsuki."

"What?" asked Ino quietly, "Sakura-chan…" tears started to fill her eyes.

Tsunade was obviously very upset at the information on her apprentice. Naruto noticed her usual frown wasn't angry but depressed. He clenched his fists, "What kind of sources?" he demanded. Tsunade closed her eyes, "The Akatsuki leader himself made contact he sent me Sakura's forehead protector. Also there was a note saying she was killed by them as a warning for us to steer clear of them for a while."

"Maybe they're using her as a ransom." Offered Hinata hopefully. Shikimaru shook his head, "if they were we would have received their demands by now and they would have made it more obvious that she'd been taken." He explained gravely.

Tsunade nodded, "We need concentrate on re-building Konoha, so I'm placing all of you on missions to find survivors, Neji will be the team one leader, the team members will be, Hinata, Naruto, and Tenten. Team two will be Kiba, Choji, Shikimaru, Ino and Lee, you will be looking for survivors. Shikimaru is the team two leader."

Naruto looked away from Tsnade. _For now Sakura._ he thought, _I will re-build Konoha. because if i don't you'll scold me for it later. I wont forget about you though, don't you ever think that, after my work is lesseed i WILL find you, or i will find out what happened to you. count on me Sakura, I'm making you this promis, don't give up on me because i sure as hell wont give up on you._

_

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**HI!!! I'm not sure if anyone noticed lol but i haven't added anything in a while, sorry. But i decided to put in a big lt of writting today so please reeiw.**_

**toodles**


	9. payback

Sakura and Deidara were pressed up against a wall near Itatchi's room when he walked towards the door.

The two of hem stifled laughter as Itatchi opened the door. He stepped into the room. There was a sudden girlish shriek.

Sasori and Kisame came running down the hallway and paused at the sight of Sakura and Deidara crying with laughter against the wall. "What did you two do?" asked Kisame. Sakura tried to explain but burst out laughing again.

Itatchi emerged from the room, he was paler than usual and he walked straight over to Sakura, he picked her up by the collar and slammed her against the wall. Sakura continued laughing. "How did you know that?" he demanded, letting Sakura go. She wiped a tear from her eye, "Well during one of your genjutsu trainings I managed to do a little soul searching, of your soul of course."

"You read my mind?" Itatchi was annoyed.

Kisame walked to Itatchi's room and peered in, "What the…" The room was filled with cherry blossoms, daisies and other assortments of flowers. She'd also opened a window and painted his walls pink. She's covered his bed in flowers and hay. Itatchi sneezed.

Sakura and Deidara shared a high-five. "This is my pay-back for you making me relive that memory Itatchi. Remember what happens when you cross me!" she smiled and gave him a peace sign before walking away form him with a broad smile spread across her face, she opened the door to her room, which was next door to Itatchi's. She blew the four boys a kiss before walking through the doorway.

Itatchi sneezed again, "This means war." He said rubbing his eyes. "I never knew you got hay fever." Muttered Kisame.

"Sakura told me ages ago." Explained Deidara, "I only wanted to paint the walls, but she went all evil on him and put the flowers in."

Sasori smirked in approval, "It's only been a few weeks and she fits in so well." He said. Itatchi angrily stomped away from them, "I need some water," he muttered.

After Itatchi had left Kisame and Deidara burst out in fits of laughter again.

Sakura had just stepped out of her en-suite shower room and was draped in a towel. She started tying up her red silk robe as the door opened.

She gasped and spun away from the door. "What the hell Itatchi?" she squeaked as her cheeks went bright red. She fastened the tie on her robe and turned to face him.

Her hair was tied in a bum and dripping with water. "Ever heard of privacy?"

"You're a fine one to talk, re-painting my room and putting flowers in there, I'll be sneezing for weeks."

"So you peeked on me?" Sakura sounded outraged,

"Don't flatter yourself I just come in here to tell you that I'll be spending a week in here." Sakura narrowed her eyes. "No!" she said, turning away from him and stomping to her wardrobe.

"Too bad Haruno, I'm staying in here because it's your fault."

"What about Deidara?"

"He'll accidentally blow me up, remember what happened last week with that bird that flew passed his window?" Sakura grimaced.

A bird had woken Deidara up, so in an angry tantrum he threw an explosive at it and destroyed it. "If I move in my sleep he'll kill me."

"You're a strong guy, you can look after yourself."

"Haruno."

"Uchiha."

They glared at each other for a few moments. Finally Sakura sighed, "Fine, but you sleep on the floor and no touching my stuff." Itatchi smiled with relief.

"Oh and by the way Uchiha." Said Sakura turning away from him, "Annoy me at all and I'll get a nice little collection of summer flowers in here. Understand?" Itatchi nodded.

Sakura smiled sweetly, "Good, now get out so I can change into my PJ's!" she shoved him out of the door.

_Sakura was trying to persuade Sasuke to stay. She was crying, "Please take me with you?" Sasuke darted behind her, "Thank you." She felt the shocking pain to her back. She felt her knees ache from the pain of her fall. "Sasuke-kun." She whispered. _

_She was suddenly moved to another place in time in the middle of a fight with Orochimaru. Naruto was fighting Sasuke._

_Orochimaru tried to take Sakura down with his tongue. Sakura was standing on the snake tongue as Orochimaru writhed in pain. She pulled out a kunai and pinned him to the ground by stabbing it through his tongue. A spurt of blood erupted into the air. _

"_Strangle that!" she shouted. She channelled her chakra into her fists, she was running low on energy as well as chakra and her wounds were very deep. _

_Orochimaru laughed and pulled his tongue from the ground, he pulled it back into his mouth and took the kunai from it. He'd thrown Sakura off balance. She flipped onto her palms and then onto her feet._

"_Tsunade's little prodigy, I've heard so much about you, the beautiful Konoha medic Nin with a short temper and great fighting skills. How would you like a chance to join me?" offered Orochimaru with a hungry grin._

_Sakura laughed slightly, "What would posses you to even think I'd consider that offer?" she asked, charging him and trying to land a kick to the side of his face. _

_Orochimaru blocked her attack and threw her backwards. Sakura disappeared in a puff of smoke. She kicked him from the other side and sent him flying into a wall. At the same time Naruto was knocked out by one of Sasuke's shuriken. _

_Sasuke was out of breath and so was Sakura, Sakura turned to face him, "Sasuke." She whispered. Sasuke sneered at her, "What do you want with me now?" he asked. _

_Sakura gained a fighting stance, "I came to take you home Sasuke-kun." Sasuke snorted, "My home was destroyed years ago."_

"_Stop being such an emo and accept it. You can avenge your family without destroying the one you've built up!" Sasuke pulled out a set of shuriken, "I don't consider you to be anything other than an annoying fan girl I got put on a team with way-back-when. Don't flatter yourself by think you mean a damned thing to me!" _

_Sakura felt hurt by his words. "You don't mean that." _

"_Yes I do, and to prove it I'll kill you!" He rushed her. Sakura didn't think in time to block or dodge and felt the full force of his punch. _

_She fell backwards and rolled for a couple of feet on the ground. He threw a kunai at her. Sakura was about to block it when a force of red chakra defected it, "How dare you harm Sakura-chan." Hissed Naruto, he was in nine-tails mode._

_Sakura felt tears running down her face, he had actually tried to kill her. She thought depressed. As Naruto and Sasuke continued their fight, Sakura turned to see Orochimaru standing up through the hole in the wall he'd been knocked through. _

"_Little Sakura-chan. Sasuke doesn't love you or even like you, he never did. Now that you're trying to get strong so that he'll notice you for being great, it just isn't working." _

_He was suddenly behind her. His hand pressed lightly above her head. She froze; her body was put into a paralysis. Tears were frozen in her eyes. Orochimaru stroked her hair, "Do you understand now? Why you should give up on him and join me?" _

"_No!" she said trying to move. "Poor, poor Sakura-chan."_

"_Stop it, get off me!" an invisible force started shaking her, "Poor little Sakura doesn't know where she belongs anymore."_

"_Stop it!" she screamed. She managed to thrash out her hand and felt it clasped tightly by another hand. "Haruno wake up!" _

_Sakura moved her other hand out to punch him. "Get away from me!" Orochimaru's smiling face filled her mind as her other hand was clasped as well. "Sakura!"_

Sakura opened her eyes; she was straining against Itatchi's grip. "Uchiha?" she whispered. Itatchi was holding her flat against the wall.

Her hands were held tightly in his. He was wearing a grey vest and sweat gleamed across his forehead, "Are you awake now?" he asked. Sakura let her arms go limp and he let go of them. He stepped away from her and moved back to the small bed on the floor. He'd made it from spare sheets and a mattress.

Sakura pressed her back against the wall and let herself slide into a sitting position, she was panting and sweating. Itatchi tuned away from her under the covers, "Was he that bad to you?" he asked.

"Who?"

"My little brother." Replied Itatchi as if she'd asked a stupid question, "You were talking in your sleep and crying and screaming at some points."

Sakura sighed, "He destroyed me." She explained simply. "He slowly took away my life." Itatchi sighed, "He killed your parents didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did that. He also left me when I begged him to stay, I felt so lost without him and he knew it." She sighed and leaned her head back.

"Did you love him?" asked Itatchi as Sakura calmed. "I did once, now I don't love him, but I can't hate him either."

"Then why did you fight him?"

"It seems he wants me to be on my own." She said quietly. Itatchi stared at her closely as she continued, "He left me alone when I loved him so dearly, then when my parents finally started to spend time with me he took them away too."

She was emotionless again silently re-living the memories. Her eyes narrowed, "I was weak then." She admitted, "But I'm not weak anymore. So Orochimaru and he can torture me all they want. It doesn't work anymore." she stood up and got into her own bed.

"I'm sorry for subconsciously attacking you Uchiha." She declared pulling the covers over her. "Don't worry, it's not like you were trying to hurt me, you wanted to hurt Orochimaru, am I right?" Sakura nodded in reply, "Yeah."

"I never liked him either, even when he joined I disliked him, he was way too into things for himself, it made him a danger to the organisation, but when he started taking an interest in stealing my body to use when he gets too old, I really hated him, and by then so did everyone else, so he left."

Sakura turned over to look out of her window. "Night Itatchi."

"Night Haruno."


	10. Two years later

Sakura replaced her kunai and got to her feet. The man was lying sprawled on the ground at her feet. She healed her sliced up arm and looked to the sky, the sun was beaming down on her.

"I can't believe I had to do this in broad daylight." She moaned before completing a number of hand seals, "Sakura-Kuro concealment jutsu." She whispered. The grass grew over the body and strangled it until it broke apart into tiny pieces and disappeared into the ground.

Sakura sat against the tree; she was almost out of chakra. Her long pink hair was down to her lower back. The only thing that kept the long strands out of her face was a black bandana. S

he didn't wear the Akatsuki uniform, instead she wore a black short dress, which had slits up the sides of it; much like the one she used to wear back in Konoha. On the back was a hot pink symbol for Akatsuki. She also wore long black ninja boots.

She took a deep breath and jumped from the tree, landing effortlessly on the ground. She stood up and walked into the thick of the forest, "I need to go to a spa." She muttered.

The hot water made her feel far more relaxed as Sakura felt her chakra return to her. She sighed and wrapped her arms behind her head; "I've needed this for a while." She said. Her hair was tied in a bun and secured with chopsticks,

"Glad you're enjoying yourself." Said a male voice from behind her. Sakura gasped and spun around, making sure she was sill concealed in the water. Sitting a few feet away from her was Itatchi and Kisame.

"Damn it guys!" she shouted reaching for a towel. She was part red with embarrassment and partly red with rage. "What the hell do you think you're doing in here?" she bellowed, wrapping the towel around herself and stepping out of the water, "This is the GIRLS spa!"

Itatchi smirked, "We were just passing by and sensed you nearby so we thought we'd drop in and see how the mission went."

"Fine, but that's no excuse for you to walk in here when I'm… well…. Not dressed appropriately!" Kisame laughed, "As if we haven't accidentally walked in your room after you just got the shower enough to know what you look…"

A wooden shoe hit the side of his head. He fell over rubbing the lump that had formed under his blue hair, "And don't you think I'll heal that either you pervert!" she shouted.

Itachi dodged the second shoe and picked his hands up in defence, "Sorry Haruno." He said before she found something else to throw at him, "Why are you in here anyway? You should have gone straight back." Sakura calmed a little, "I was low an chakra so I thought I'd relax a little."

Kisame sat up, "If you're done do you want to go back together? It's better than being on your own." Sakura sighed, "Fine, but will you get out please?" Itatchi and Kisame nodded and disappeared.

The three made it back to the base to meet Deidara and Sasori at the door. "Oh Yey!" shouted Deidara running up to Sakura and hugging her, "I missed you Saku-chan." Sakura hugged him back, "Me too Barbie-chan." Sasori nodded to her.

"Hey!" objected Kisame angrily, "How come you didn't greet us like that?" he demanded. Sakura turned to face him, "Because," she said, "Deidara didn't sneak up on me when I was at the spa!" she shook her fist angrily and Itatchi smirked, "How were we supposed to know you were undressed." Sakura growled and stomped out of the room.

"You guys really are perverts." Said Sasori. Kisame tried to object but failed, Itatchi shrugged, "We didn't know she'd be naked or anything so I see it as completely innocent."

"Yeah _you_ would." Sasori said before walking towards his room. Deidara stared for a moment then perked up as an idea crossed his mind, "Hey, Saku-chan!" he called, "Do you want to do some training?" Itatchi and Kisame shrugged at each other.

Sakura unpacked her backpack into her draws and went in the shower. She stepped out and got dressed. She dried her hair and did her make-up. She was wearing a similar black dress to the one she'd worn on the mission. She fastened her bandana and looked to her window as she saw a figure rush passed it. She frowned and stepped closer to the glass.

Suddenly the glass smashed inwards and a pair of hands grasped her and dragged her through the window. Sakura screamed from shock before she hit the ground and rolled a couple of feet. She stood up quickly, "What the hell?" she shouted angrily as she subconsciously healed her wounds. She paused.

The figure before her had medium length black hair and wore a black shirt; a few buttons were left open at the top to reveal a scarred chest. His dark eyes were staring in shock. "S-Sasuke?" she whispered. Sasuke and Sakura stood in the silence for a few seconds before Sasuke opened his mouth, "Why are you here? I heard you were dead."

"Did you really hear that or was it just wishful thinking?" she asked. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "You joined Akatsuki? You were the last person I'd expect to become a missing Nin."

"Times change Uchiha, so do people." Sasuke pulled out a kunai; "Naruto's been looking for you everywhere."

"Well, he wont find me." She replied moving into a fighting stance. Sasuke sighed, "I didn't expect to be fighting you here, but I suppose a warm up match before Itatchi wont hurt."

Sakura started to laugh, "You actually think you have a chance against either of us?" she asked. Sasuke sneered and threw the kunai. Sakura stepped away from it and appeared behind Sasuke. She stabbed a kunai towards him. Sasuke completed a series of hand seals and blew fire at her. Sakura back flipped out of the way and made two shadow clones of herself.

Each clone threw shuriken at him. Sasuke jumped away from them and landed just in time to notice Sakura's shadow above him. He dodged her downward punch and backed up. He spat another load of fire at her and Sakura stood against it.

As Sasuke lowered his hand he felt another hand clasp his wrist. He gasped as the burnt Sakura healed herself and tightened her grip, slowly crushing Sasuke's hand.

Sasuke yelped in pain. He stabbed a kunai towards her and Sakura let go of his hand. She dodged the kunai and back flipped out of his way. She slammed her hand on the ground, "Sakura-Kuro flytrap!" she called.

Grass cocooned Sasuke, except for his head. He narrowed his eyes. Sakura stood up. "Saku-chan!" called Deidara. He ran towards her and paused at the sight of the boy trapped in her jutsu. Sakura turned to face him, "Took your time." She muttered, "I almost had to use up a lot of chakra." Sasori and Kisame both appeared at the same time either side of Sakura.

"Did he drag you out here? We heard you scream and then went looking for you." Said Kisame about to pull out his sword. Sasori raised an eyebrow, "Do you want us to kill him painfully or torture him then kill him painfully?" he asked darkly. "We should ask Uchiha before we do anything to him." Said Sakura.

Deidara circled Sasuke; he was fighting against the technique, "You know if you fight too much Saku-chan will tighten it and cut you up." Sasuke looked straight at Sakura, "Why would you ask me what you should do to me?" he questioned. Sakura sighed as Deidara backslapped Sasuke. "Barbie-chan…" she warned. "Sorry." Replied Deidara quickly.

"I wasn't talking about you." Sakura explained before shouting, "Uchiha! Get you're ass out here now!"

Itatchi appeared next to her, "Do you have to shout?" he asked monotonously. Sakura nodded, "You're little bratty brother decided to drag me through a window." She explained in an irritated voice, "What do you want to do with him?" Itachi raised an eyebrow, "It's up to you Haruno."

Sakura nodded slowly. "Ok." She said, "Sasuke, if I let you go I trust you'll leave, right?" Sasuke shook his head, "I'm going to avenge my family!" he shouted. Itatchi laughed, "Little brother, if Haruno defeats you so easily then you don't have any hope against me."

"Liar." Muttered Sakura, "I beat you the last three training matches." Itatchi looked to her, "I let you win." He seemed annoyed. Sakura and Itatchi started arguing over who wan the match.

Deidara sighed, "Guys, we have a prisoner here!" he shouted over their voices. Sasori stepped away from them and over to Sasuke, "They're going to be like this for days." He muttered. Kisame stepped between them, "Sakura-chan, what do you want to do with the prisoner?" Sakura glared at him, "Let him go, obviously."

"Why not kill him, he could stand a threat and tell others where we are." Questioned Sasori.

"He won't." Replied Sakura sharply, "He's a loner, the only people that he can get to attack us will be Orochimaru's village and I'd enjoy that too much to let the idea slip away." Sasori and Deidara sighed in unison. "You and your blood lust." Stated Sasori.

"Leader wont be too happy with you if you let a possible threat run off." Said Itatchi.

Sakura looked to the ground, Sasuke noticed the sorrow cross her face. "Good." She said finally. She turned away and took a step away from them, "Sakura…" started Kisame. "What?" asked Sakura turning to face him, "You're ok right?" he was serious and worried.

Sakura nodded, "I'm fine," She clenched her fist and turned away from the group, her hair swinging around her face as she did so. The jutsu on Sasuke broke and he was sent falling to the ground. Deidara frowned at him, "I haven't seen her that depressed since she joined." He said. Itatchi turned away and walked after them, "I'll make sure she's alright." He declared monotonously.

Sasori glared at the boy in front of them, "Get lost kid." He said, "Before I make you regret staying." Sasuke stood up and disappeared.

Sakura was walking towards an area a few meters from the training grounds; it was a square garden full of cherry blossoms. "Haruno!" called Itatchi hurriedly stepping after her. Sakura ignored him. "Sakura, wait a minute!" Sakura paused at the sound of her first name. She turned slowly, "What?" she asked. Her voice was hoarse as though she were about to cry.

Itatchi stopped a few meters from her so that the pollen from the trees wouldn't bother him. "What's going on with you?" asked Itatchi. Sakura looked to the ground, "I wasn't expecting to see him." She replied, "That's all." Itatchi shook his head, "That's not it Haruno, what's going on?"

"Nothing." Sakura turned and walked into the sanctuary of the cherry blossoms, where she knew Itatchi wouldn't follow her.

Itatchi took a deep breath, "Sakura!" he called, "Come on, talk to me!" When he got no reply, Itatchi covered his face with his sleeve and walked into the blossoms after her.

Sakura felt Itatchi's hand wrap around her wrist, she turned to see Itatchi with closed eyes griping her wrist tightly. He dragged her from the protection of the cherry blossoms and back into the open air.

He rubbed his sore eyes before letting go of her wrist. "Talk to me." He repeated. Sakura had tears in her eyes. "Uchiha…" she whispered. She looked down, "I miss them." She replied, "I miss every single one of them, seeing Sasuke just made memories come flooding back and I…" she sobbed, "I miss them so much." She stepped forwards and into Itatchi.

Itatchi hesitated a moment as she cried into his Akatsuki uniform. He slowly wrapped his arms around her. His eyes were narrowed slightly, he didn't know what to do; he was shocked enough just by seeing her crying let alone embracing him. He wanted to say something that would make her feel better but nothing came to mind.

Sasuke clenched his fist. _Why is she hugging HIM? He's evil, he killed my family and she hugs him and cries to him. She'll pay for that! I'll take her away from him! He can't have her. He will never have her. Never!_ He thought before disappearing.

Sakura stepped away from Itatchi and wiped her eyes, "I'm sorry." She muttered as she composed herself, "I didn't mean to…"

"Don't worry, I wont tell the boys you cried." Sakura nodded slowly. "Thank you." She muttered before stepping back towards the cherry blossoms. Itatchi sneezed and walked back towards the indoor base, "Where did I put my allergy medicine?" he asked himself.

After taking his allergy medicine Itatchi went into the living quarters to sit on the couch. He stared at the floor in deep thought. "How is she?" Asked a voice from the doorway. Itatchi looked up for a moment, he raised an eyebrow at Kisame then looked to the ground, "Better." Kisame moved to sit next to him, "You're getting pretty close to her; you'd better be careful Itatchi."

Itatchi looked up at Kisame, "Why?" he asked quietly. Kisame patted him on the back "Well, I'd hate to see you fall in love with her and her not return the feeling." Explained Kisame before standing up, "Remember why she's here Itatchi, so we don't kill her friend, we don't know what she really feels for any of us." Itatchi's gaze remained fixed to the ground, "True." He replied emotionlessly.

Sakura sighed and looked out of the smashed window, "You'd better not tell him I'm alive Sasuke." She muttered.

Naruto leaped to the next tree, he was behind Neji; "Sasuke was seen around here somewhere." Muttered Neji clearly surveying the area with his Byakogan. Naruto nodded.

He was taller than Neji and was on the same rank as him, the two had been sent on a mission to find Sasuke in hopes of him leading them towards Orochimaru. Konoha was still being re-built but it was close to completion, only a few buildings were still destroyed. A lot of survivors were found after the attack and were brought to the sand village until houses could be re-built. Naruto and Neji were a team when it came to finding Sasuke and they were both ANBU. Naruto wore a dog mask and Neji wore a cat mask. The two made it to a clearing where Sasuke was standing with his arms crossed, he was clearly angry.

"Sasuke!" shouted Naruto landing on the ground the same time as Neji. Sasuke smiled slightly, his anger melted away, "I'm not here to fight." He said casually, "I have some information you might be interested in." A sinister smirk spread across his face.


	11. meditation is important

**(A.N. thanks for the reveiws XD. i'm trying to finish this story soon because i have mock exams coming up soon and i wont have time to update... STRESS!! lmao. Anywho i hope you like this chapter, althoguh it's pretty uneventful and encase anyone is wondering where the hell inner-Sakura went, when Sakura meditates she manages t get rid of her other personality by gaining more control... and that's about it...**

**Toodles**

**xxXKimmYXxx)**

* * *

"Sasuke!" shouted Naruto landing on the ground the same time as Neji. Sasuke smiled slightly, his anger melted away, "I'm not here to fight." He said casually, "I have some information you might be interested in."

"And what might that be?" asked Neji gaining a fighting stance. "Sakura is alive." He replied. He smirked at the shocked faces of the two before him. Naruto and Neji shared a glance, "You're lying." Growled Naruto.

Sasuke shook his head, "I'm telling the truth." Naruto's shock almost paralysed him, "How did you find out?" asked Neji in Naruto's place. Sasuke crossed his arms, "I tried to attack my brother and guess who I found instead?"

Naruto's eyes were wide, "Sakura-chan." He whispered shakily. Neji looked to his comrade then back to Sasuke, "She's working with them?" Sasuke nodded, "She doesn't seem to like it there much though, when I saw her she was crying like a weak child."

"Did you kill your brother?"

"No, certain… complications arose. In any case I figured I should let you know that she's alive. Maybe you should go after her before it's too late."

"Too late?"

"You never know what Akatsuki members will do to a weak member. She may find herself in a predicament she can't get out of without your help." He dropped a note to the ground at his feet, "These are directions to the Akatsuki base she's at, hurry up." Sasuke disappeared and Naruto ran to pick up the note, "Let's go!" he said standing up. Neji sighed, "Shouldn't we tell Tsunade?"

"You heard him she could get attacked at any moment." Neji sighed again at Naruto's desperate eyes gleaming through the mask.

* * *

Sakura sat in the middle of the training area, her legs crossed and her bandana tied over her eyes as she meditated. Deidara Sasori stepped onto the grass and walked up behind her, "Sakura." He called quietly, breaking her out of the meditation.

Sakura sighed angrily and pulled off the bandana, letting her hair fall in front of her face, "What is it?" she asked Sasori before opening her eyes.

Her eyes were the same pink as her hair; they dissolved back to her normal emerald green as she looked up at her friend. Sasori lent out a hand to help her up. Sakura obliged and let him help her to her feet. "Leader has a mission for you." He replied.

Sakura nodded and stretched the bandana between her hands before flattening it against her forehead and tying it tightly. Her hair once again took shape around her face. "Am I on my own?" she asked. Sasori shook his head, "Itatchi and Deidara are going with you."

She walked ahead of him and into the meeting room where a hologram of Leader was waiting impatiently for her, "Where were you?" he asked as Sakura walked into the room, Deidara, Itatchi, Kisame and Sasori were all in there with her. "Meditating." She replied looking to her nails. Leader sighed angrily at her disrespect towards him

"You're mission is to find a very powerful ninja and kill him."

"Who?" asked Sakura.

"His name is unknown, but he's a threat to the organization, he also has ties to Orochimaru." Deidara smiled with relief when Sakura perked up a bit. "So there's a chance for me to kill the old snake?" Leader nodded, "Great!" twittered Sakura with a smile, "Thank you."

"No problem, just don't mess it up like the last assassination you and Deidara went on." Deidara sighed, "Sorry, I honestly thought he was a photographer looking for a model." Sakura shook her head, "Don't worry Leader-sama, I'll look after him." She patted her friend on the back. "Sakura," started Leader, his brow creased with annoyance, "Stop being so light and happy, you'll give us a bad name."

"Sorry Leader-sama." She said with a broad smile. She waved as he disappeared with a sigh.

After the hologram was gone she went back to her serious self. "You know acting like an exited child every time you see leader is only going to annoy him." Warned Sasori. Sakura nodded, "That's why I do it, besides I'm in a good mood now." The four men shared glances then looked back to Sakura. "Orochimaru?" Questioned Kisame. Sakura nodded as an evil look flashed across her eyes, "Orochimaru." She confirmed darkly.

* * *

"So what is Sakura to you anyway?" asked Neji half mindedly as he was surveying the area for threats. They were tree hopping through the woods that Sasuke's note had described to them. Naruto smiled slightly, "She's my best friend and a younger sister to me, that's it."

"So you feel you have to protect her?"

"Of course."

"You do realise that if she's joined Akatsuki then we'll have to fight and possibly kill her." Naruto nodded, "We don't know why she joined, maybe there's unseen circumstances in it." Neji looked to Naruto for a while,

"I hope you're right." He replied.

They made it to a mound of earth; it was dark by that time. "This is the base?" questioned Naruto disappointedly. Neji nodded, "There's a genjutsu placed on it." He confirmed. Naruto gasped and grasped Neji's arm so suddenly Neji nearly lost balance. "Naruto!" he hissed.

Naruto pointed to three figures walking in the distance. They were silhouettes in the white moonlight. "It's her." He said happily, "Sakura-chan." Neji held Naruto back, "Quit being so loud or someone will spot us." He thought to himself for a while, "I think we should follow them and make sure it is her and not someone who looks like her.

I also think we should see if she is in fact in Akatsuki by her own free will or not." Naruto nodded slowly. Neji lifted his mask slightly to show his serious facial expression,

"No interacting with her until we know her loyalties, got it?" Naruto nodded again as Neji lowered the mask, "Ok, lets go."

* * *

Sakura was humming to herself as they passed the high trees, Deidara was flying up ahead and Itatchi was walking next to her.

"Must you hum?" he asked irritably. Sakura looked to him and stopped humming for a second. When she saw Itatchi relax slightly she started humming twice as loud as before.

Itatchi covered his ears, "Damn it Haruno." He exclaimed angrily. Sakura smiled and jumped into the trees to go and talk with Deidara.

"Barbie-chan!" called Sakura as she caught up to him. Deidara turned to see her tree hopping below him. He lowered the bird a little and let Sakura jump onto its back, "What's up Saku-chan?" he asked.

Sakura shrugged, "Uchiha's being his boring self." She replied. "How are things up here?"

"Good so far, if you're getting tired we could stop for a bit."

"In other words you're tired right?"

"Right."

"I'll go and tell Uchiha."

She jumped from the clay bird and landed on a tree branch. She waited for Itatchi to step beneath the branch and jumped down.

"Deidara's getting tired, he says we stop for a bit." Itatchi nodded, "At the next clearing I'll set up some traps ok?" Sakura nodded and went back to walking beside him silently.

"Haruno," started Itatchi to break the silence. Sakura looked up into his gleaming red eyes, "Yes?" she replied. Itatchi looked away from her, "About before, when you said you missed your home…" Sakura seemed to panic slightly, "But that doesn't mean I don't like it where I am, I just miss them don't take it the wrong way I love you guys to bits it's just…" she looked to her feet sadly.

Itatchi nodded, "Be careful you don't let Leader know." He warned before stepping ahead of her. Sakura nodded. "Um… Uchiha." She called after him. Itatchi stopped walking and turned to face her, he raised an eyebrow impatiently. Sakura coughed to clear her throat, "Um… I just wanted to say…"

"Saku-chan! I've found the perfect spot for our camp!" called Deidara, almost knocking Sakura over with shock.

He paused at the awkward silence that had ensued the two. "Did I interrupt something?" he asked. Sakura shook her head and walked ahead in a slight daze,

"Nothing at all, everything is perfectly fine, peachy keen." She walked passed Itatchi and avoided his gaze. Deidara sighed, "I interrupted something didn't I?" He said deflated. Itatchi shook his head, "You heard her, everything's fine." He walked passed Deidara and into the clearing.

Deidara sighed, "Something tells me tonight's going to be _really_ quiet." He muttered before stepping after Itatchi.

* * *

Naruto and Neji watch the three of the make camp. Naruto was watching Sakura closely. She was brushing her long hair. "I'm going to meditate." She declared standing up and passing the brush to Deidara, "Only disturb me if it's urgent."

She stepped towards the tree's Naruto and Neji were hiding in. Neji and Naruto moved to another set of trees silently as Sakura sat down against the bark of a large tree.

She held her hand in a seal and sat for a few moments with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes they had changed to a bright pink. She stood up slowly and tugged off the bandana. She tied it over her eyes then sat back down and began meditating; she was deadly still and completely quiet. She'd seemed to stop breathing all together.

Naruto stared at her closely, "Why is she meditating?" he whispered, "She never used to." Neji shrugged, "We don't know how much she's changed." He explained. Naruto looked down sadly.

They both looked up from Sakura at the sound of Deidara giggling, "I really wouldn't mess with her when she's meditating." Warned Itatchi standing behind Deidara. Deidara shushed him, "She'll be fine."

"I was more worried about you." Muttered Itatchi leaving the blonde missing Nin to his business.

Deidara let his hand eat up a little clay then made a bomb out of it. He made a bomb in the shape of a butterfly. He threw it into the air and completed a jutsu, turning it into a clay creature.

The butterfly fluttered over to Sakura. Sakura slowly lifted her hand she grasped the butterfly's wing. She stood up. She threw the butterfly back at Deidara, "Crap!" he shouted, "Itatchi look out!"

Itatchi ducked out the way of the explosive as it went flying into the trees behind him, he looked back then dodged the flying debris. He angrily turned to Deidara, "Deidara!" he growled. Deidara picked up his hands in his defence, "I didn't think she'd throw it back."

Sakura was still standing, not saying a word. She stepped over to Deidara and pulled out a kunai she started viscously attacking him.

Deidara dodged every attack, "I didn't think you'd be that mad." He said jumping next to Itatchi. Itatchi examined the blindfolded Sakura closely, "Baka!" he muttered pulling out a shuriken.

He threw the metal at her. Sakura dodged last minute and ran at the two. They split up and jumped into trees either side of her, "What happened to her?" asked Deidara.

"She was in mid-meditation, she can't control herself." explained Itatchi. He jumped from the tree as Sakura punched the trunk and caused the tree to snap like a twig against her strength.

"That's why she meditates." Muttered Naruto. Neji watched, as the blindfolded Sakura seemed to look through the cloth and see her enemies clearly.

"Keep her busy!" shouted Itatchi as Deidara hopped to another tree. "No problem." Replied Deidara throwing a lump of clay into the air and turning it into a large bird he jumped onto its back and started throwing small explosives at Sakura.

Sakura dodged the explosives and started walking towards Deidara. Itatchi jumped behind her and grasped the blindfold. He tugged the cloth from her eyes.

Her eyes were bright pink glowing slightly in the night air. Sakura pushed him off her and turned to attack him again. Itatchi blocked her and pushed her against a tree, he stared deeply into her eyes.

"Mind intrusion jutsu." He said as his pupil twisted into a new shape. Sakura froze.

Sakura's eyes returned to green and she fell forwards. Itatchi caught her. When he realised she was unconscious he laid her on the ground gently.

Deidara landed softly behind him, "So that's how she keeps that other part of her at bay." He observed, Itatchi nodded slowly, "You do realise she's going to kill you when she wakes up?" Deidara nodded, "Yup, but it was fun."

Itatchi stood up and walked passed him, "You can keep guard _all_ night for that." He said lying down. "Did that jutsu take too much out of you?" asked Deidara picking Sakura up and laying her next to the fire he'd built.

Itatchi looked to her and then to Deidara, "Hn," he replied before turning away from Sakura and falling asleep straight away.

* * *

Naruto watched, "That was almost as bad as the time she went crazy on us all those years ago." He said. Neji nodded, "She's learnt to control it to a certain degree." he huffed, "Why don't you get some rest, I'll watch them for you."

"No, I'll watch them." Naruto insisted. Neji nodded.

* * *

Sakura awoke the next morning. She was moving. She felt warmth around her as she was moving through the forest. She groaned as the sun blinded her. She closed her eyes and nestled her head into the warm material of whatever was surrounding her.

"Haruno, how long do you intend on making me carry you for?" Sakura jumped and fell out of his arms and flat on her face on the ground. "Ow." She muttered moving onto her knees.

Itatchi looked down at her. "You could have woken me up." She moaned getting to her feet; her head was hurting. "I tried to wake you up, you must have needed the sleep." Sakura moved her hand to her head as she carried on walking forwards. "But there was no need to carry me."

"It was either that or drag you and you'd only start moaning if I did." Sakura snorted, "Thanks." She said sarcastically. "How much further?"

"About two minutes and we're at the village."

"You carried me all that way?" Itatchi nodded. The rest of the walk to the village was in silence Deidara noticed the awkward silence and decided to contribute to it until they got to the inn they intended to say at. The three sat in a circle and made a plan of how to lure the ninja out of hiding.

"Our sources say he spends most of his time in the bar across the street." Explained Itatchi. Deidara nodded, "I also heard that he likes the ladies." The two of them looked to Sakura, "That's why I'm here isn't it?" she asked glumly.

"Yup. Saku-chan, you go into the bar, dressed to kill, as usual. And seduce him into following you back to this room, where we will all gang up on him and kill him brutally, then Sakura can hide the body and mission completed."

"Do I have to?" The two boys nodded. "Can't you just put Barbie-chan in a dress and make him go?" Itatchi grimaced at the thought. Deidara seemed thoughtful, "I suppose but you have better legs than me."

Sakura sighed and stood up, "Fine, just let me freshen up and I'll get him here, one way or the other."


	12. Assassin at work

**(A.N. Hi again. I wasn't too sure whether this chapter was ok or not but i thought i'd put it in anyway. I hope you like it. **

**toodles**

**xxXKimmYXxx )**

* * *

Naruto and Neji sat in the bar; they were in a disguising jutsu. "Are you sure they're going to come in here?" asked Neji. Naruto nodded, "I heard them myself." They both froze as a pink haired girl walked into the room.

Sakura was wearing a short tight black dress and black heals, she carried a black shoulder bag. Her hair was super straight and shiny, She wore a black choker and had subtle make-up on.

She walked up to the bar and ordered a small glass of sake. She leaned against a bar next to a large potted plant. She took a small sip of the drink and when she thought no one was looking spat it back into the glass. How she hated sake.

Naruto looked away from her with red cheeks, Neji however couldn't keep his eyes off her. The way she was standing was so feminine and delicate. She flirted a bit with the bar man and asked him a few questions.

* * *

Deidara and Itatchi were sitting in the window of their room, watching the bar through another window; Sakura was standing at the exact right place for them to see her.

Deidara was looking through his eye that was normally covered by his hair, "Way to go Sakura he whispered, Itatchi was staring at her. "When she dresses to kill she really goes all out yeah." Said Deidara. Itatchi sighed, "There's the target." He said pointing to a tall slim man walking into the bar.

* * *

"Haruno." Said Itatchi through her earpiece, "The target's walking through the main entrance." Sakura looked from the barman to the doorway. The target was fairly good looking, nothing compared to Itatchi but he wasn't ugly in any sense of the word.

He had medium length dark blue hair and tanned skin. He wore a mist village forehead protector and carried a white sneer spread across his face. He was wearing his weapons in view, two pouches containing projectiles and whatever else he hid beneath clothing.

He walked straight up to Sakura. "Hi." He said his voice was gruffly deep. Sakura smiled at him, "Hi." She replied taking a fake sip of her sake.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I guess she's here to assassinate _him_." He said. Neji didn't reply but kept staring at her.

Sakura flicked her hair and smiled. "May I ask such a beautiful woman her name?" asked the target. "Why of course, my name is Hikari." She lied expertly. "Such a pretty name." He said, "I'm Masa." He reached out and gently played with a piece of her long hair.

"So, Sakura-san," He said, "Did it hurt?" Sakura looked at him slightly confused, "Did what hurt Masa-kun?"

"When you fell from heaven to Earth?" It took all of Sakura's will power for her not to laugh at how dumb his pick-up lines were. She turned away from him for a second to make sure he didn't see her smirk.

"You're so sweet Masa-kun. But I'm no angel." She replied. "I bet you aren't." He stepped up to her and nuzzled into her neck. Sakura covered up her disgust with a high-pitched girlish giggle.

Masa's hand hovered above her drink and dropped a powder inside. It fizzled silently then dissolved into the sake.

* * *

Deidara narrowed his eyes on the fizzing liquid, "Sakura, he's drugged your drink." Itatchi frowned, "He's accidentally switched off her earpiece." He said. Deidara sighed, "I guess she's on her own then, should I go down?"

"She can handle it."

He stepped back from her and leaned in to kiss her, Sakura's eyes widened with shock. She fought all of her repulsive thoughts and kissed him back.

"Damn…" muttered Deidara zooming in on the eyepiece. Itatchi's frown deepened and he looked away, "She doesn't have to make it so convincing." He muttered. Deidara laughed, "Is poor little Itatchi jealous?"

"Of that second rate Shinobi? Never!" Deidara smirked to himself, "Ok then." He said in disbelief. Itatchi glared at Masa kissing Sakura so passionately. His blood boiled when he saw Masa's hand travel to her thigh.

* * *

Naruto blocked the view with his hand. "Are they done yet?"

"Nope." Replied Neji, "Still going for it." Naruto groaned, "How can you watch that? It's _Sakura_ for heaven's sake. Our childhood friend."

"Well she's all grown up now."

"Pervert."

* * *

Sakura tried not to gag at his breath. She waited for him to get off her before he leaned in to whisper in her ear, "Do you want to go someplace a little more private?"

Sakura picked up her drink and put it to her lips, a familiar smell reached her nose, she took the rest of the drink in her mouth and nodded, she swallowed and then raised her finger to signify 'one minute' she stepped into the girls toilets.

She leaned over the sink by a row of mirrors and spat the sake out and down the drain; she started to swill her mouth out with the water chanting, "Icky, icky, icky." She tried to turn her earpiece back on,

"Oh crap." She muttered, he'd broken it, either he knows she's an assassin or he just did it by accident. She thought to herself as she swilled her mouth out again. She re-did her lip-gloss and tidied up her hair.

She took a deep breath, "The things I do for my job." She whined before walking out of the door with a winning smile.

She met Masa outside the girl's toilet door. He grasped her hand and she felt a sharp object press against her lower back. She guessed it was a kunai.

She looked to him with fake bewilderment, "Masa?" she questioned as innocently as she could. Masa walked her out of the bar, "Don't play dumb with me Kunoichi." He hissed in her ear.

Sakura felt her legs go slightly weak. He laughed at her, "I thought you'd be a medic Nin, that drug I dropped in your drink has the same effect if you smell it too." He walked with Sakura into an alleyway.

"So I take it you want to assassinate me for some petty reason. Revenge perhaps. Did I kill one of your female friends?" Sakura glared at him. Her head was swimming as he slammed her painfully against the wall of the alleyway.

His hand moved to her lower back. She narrowed her eyes at his angrily sadistic face and brought her knee upwards with as much force as she could muster.

She heard a satisfying thump as her knee connected to his groin. He made a high pitched wheezing noise, Sakura was having trouble focusing her chakra so it wasn't with her super human strength, but it hurt enough for her to shove him away from her and stumble away from him.

He somehow managed to stumble after her and wrap his arm around her neck; he dragged her backwards. Sakura felt his kunai stab through her back painfully.

Sakura couldn't focus her chakra to the wound to heal it. He pushed her to the ground, "Such a pretty little thing you are." He said stepping up to her, "Far prettier than any of the others." Sakura spat at him, there was a small pool of blood beneath her, staining her dress.

She moved to kick him but he grasped her ankle. "I am also a medic Nin." He said stroking her calf, "Such soft skin." He murmured. Sakura tried to get her leg away from his grasp. "What's the matter Kunoichi? You were all over me a second ago."

Sakura noticed a loose strap on one of his pouches. She looked back to his face and pulled her leg sharply towards her causing him to stumble and fall on top of her. She pulled off the pouch and pushed him off her. She got to her feet shakily and tried to run away from him.

He jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around her waist, "Damn it! Some men just don't quit!" she snarled reaching into the pouch and pulling out a dagger. She hacked it into his leg repeatedly as he cried out in pain.

He dropped her and let a few curses slip through his lips. Sakura pushed him against a wall and pressed the dagger against his throat, she was about to slit his throat open when he backed up into the other wall of the alleyway, flattening Sakura against the wall and making her drop the dagger. She slumped to the ground. "Any last words Kunoichi before I have my way with you?"

"I'm not done yet." She got to her feet, leaning against the wall. She ran forwards and tried to stab him with the dagger. He dodged and pushed her against the wall painfully.

"You're one hell of an annoying girl. You know that?" he pulled the pouch from her grasp and brought a kunai to her neck. "Did you think I'd be an easy kill?" he asked.

Sakura laughed slightly her face twisted into a look of exitement, "Where would be the fun in that?" she asked. He pressed the kunai harder against her throat as Sakura desperately thought of a plan.

As he was about to rip it across her skin she noticed a small white spider crawl next to her. She smiled slightly picking it up and feeling the clay that made it. She threw it into the air; it exploded, distracting Masa.

She shoved her elbow into his side and grasped his forearm she caused him to drop the kunai. She flipped it into the air using her foot and caught it before shoving him backwards and spinning around.

She pushed her palm upwards and felt his nose crack against the pressure. He stumbled backwards in pain holding his bleeding nose tightly. She lunged forwards and stabbed the kunai into his stomach, twisting it on impact.

As Masa stumbled backwards he was shoved into a wall by a black figure.

Itatchi stared at him closely. After a few seconds Masa fell to the ground, dead. Itatchi turned back to Sakura and raised an eyebrow at her.

She was leaning against the wall and breathing heavily, "Can you walk?" he asked monotonously. Sakura nodded and leaned against the wall for support, she turned her back to Itatchi; it was then that he noticed the wound in her back, "You under-performed today." He observed.

Sakura glared at him, "I need my medical bag." She muttered before stumbling slightly on the stiletto heals. She tried to stand straight as Deidara threw her a purse from the rooftop he was perched on.

She opened it and pulled out three bottles she downed all three of them and waited a few seconds before coughing up a few spurts of blood. She then used a hand seal to focus her chakra.

Her wound healed. She sighed with relief and got to her feet. She put the three bottles of anti-toxin back into her purse, "Baka. I should have known he was a medic Nin." She completed a series of hand seals, "Sakura-Kuro concealment jutsu." She called.

The dusty ground opened up and swallowed the body whole. Deidara waved, "I'm going to go to the bar for a bit, see you guys back at the room." He jumped from the rooftop.

Sakura had her back to Itatchi as she inspected the damage to her dress. She could feel his icy stare focused on her back,

"What?" she asked finally, still refusing to face him. Itatchi looked to the ground, "You should be more careful." He said. Sakura waved her hand dismissively, "It turned out fine didn't it?"

"Only because we showed up."

"I could have handled it."

"You would have killed him along with yourself."

"What's so wrong with that, I'd get the job done wouldn't I?" She asked irritated as she turned to face him. A silence fell between the two of them until Itatchi looked into her emerald eyes.

"Haruno… did you _like_ him?" Sakura hesitated for a moment and then in a moment of complete outrage she took a step towards him.

"Obviously not. I don't normally go for the whole drug a girl so he can have his wicked way with her type."

"Then why the hell were you kissing him for so long?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, do I need your permission before I kiss someone now Uchiha? It was for the mission!" She flailed her arms around angrily as she spoke, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"You seemed to be enjoying yourself a bit too much!"

"That is just untrue and even if it was why should it matter to you?" She took another step towards him.

"Because I'm here looking after you and…"

"I don't need anyone to look after me Uchiha! I'm a high maintenance killer, I can look after myself!" she was close enough for him to grab her now but neither Shinobi made a move to make contact with the other.

"You really proved that tonight!"

"So what if I made a mistake?"

"It was a Jounin mistake to make, you're above Jounin level now Haruno and you shouldn't be making such mistakes like a…" He paused; he stopped before he said it.

"Like a weak girl you mean? Like a girl who doesn't even have the skills to be a Shinobi. Well you can go to Hell Uchiha, you're no better than your brat of a brother!"

She whirled around in an angry huff and started to walk away from him. "Haruno!" called Itatchi after her. Sakura ignored him. She jumped onto a rooftop and into the forest beyond the village.

Itatchi sighed. He rubbed his temples in annoyance, "Women." He muttered stepping out of the alleyway.


	13. An unwanted reunion

**(A.N. HIII sorry it's short lol... um... i'm actually at a short for words so... um i hope you enjoy the chapter nd... yeah...**

**luvvoooo**

**toodles**

**xxXKimmYXxx) **

Sakura punched a tree as hard as she could and knocked it down, "Stupid, stupid, stupid Uchiha!" she shouted before punching another tree.

The tree fell to the ground bringing up a load of dust. Sakura fell to her knees and punched the ground, leaving a huge dent where her fist had been. "Why does everyone think I'm weak?" she whispered, "I became a damned assassin and still no one can accept my strength."

She looked into the distance and moved into a kneeling position on the ground, "Should I just run off?" she thought aloud. "No, I can't do that." She remembered her promise to protect Naruto and smiled slightly at her memories of him.

"I'll just have to become stronger." She said. "I'll just have to stay and become stronger than them all." She slowly got to her feet. "There's no other way."

Itatchi stepped into the hotel room, slamming the door behind him. Deidara was sitting in the window looking at the bar, "Did you lose your lucky ribbon again Itatchi?" He asked absent-mindedly. Itatchi frowned, "No. It's in my cloak pocket."

"So you do have a lucky ribbon?"

"No!" Itatchi moved to one of the beds and sat down, he sighed deeply.

"Where's Saku-chan?" asked Deidara. Itatchi shrugged, "She lost her temper and stormed off."

"Well you should get her, we're going to have to leave soon."

"Already?"

"I've spotted Konoha ninja's, they seem to be ANBU level."

"What?" exclaimed Itatchi getting swiftly to his feet, "Do they know we're here?" Deidara nodded, "They may be after Saku-chan, they were watching her whilst she was undercover." He muttered, "I say we attack them, they left the bar a few minutes ago."

"How many?"

"Two, I can't see anymore."

"I think we should go and get Haruno then leave." Deidara nodded and stood up, "I hope she doesn't do anything to bring attention to herself."

The two paused, Deidara shot Itatchi a questioning look, "Just how angry was she? Destroying the forest angry?" At Itatchi's silence he assumed the worst and ran passed him closely followed by Itatchi.

Sakura was walking out of the forest, she was in the last clearing before the village, she paused mid step and pulled out two kunai she threw them behind her, spinning at the same time.

The kunais were deflected and fell to the ground. She turned around as two ANBU black ops ninja's leaped from the trees. They stood up slowly and stared at her for a while not making a move.

"Is there something you want?" asked Sakura. She kicked off her heals and stood at her shorter height. Although it made her look less threatening she figured that starting off a fight and tripping over a broken stiletto is not a good way to go.

"Sakura-chan…" muttered a voice. Sakura recognised it even though the dog mask muffled it. Sakura dropped the kunai she'd pulled out to the ground in shock, "No way." She whispered.

The cat-masked ANBU stepped towards her, "We don't want to fight you Sakura-san." Sakura was shaking, "N-Neji?" her voice sounded so weak.

Naruto and Neji both pulled off their masks. Naruto and Sakura stared at each other for a matter of moments, but it seemed like a lifetime to both of them.

Sakura felt tears begin to form in her eyes, "Why are you here?" she asked, she tried to make her voice seem cold but it only came out in a strange tone.

"Sasuke sent us." Explained Naruto. Sakura's eyes widened slightly, her joy and shock turned to rage, "Sasuke? He did what?" She clenched her fists at her sides. Naruto stepped towards her, "Sakura-chan?"

Sakura took a step back, "Don't." she said. She knew if she let him get close to her she'd lose it completely and want nothing more than to go home.

It was a selfish thought that she couldn't accomplish. If she abandoned Akatsuki they'd kill Naruto. Sakura felt her heart begin to break in two at the sight of Naruto's confused face. "You can't come anywhere near me." She said.

The shock reflected on Naruto and Neji's faces was indescribable, "Why not?" asked Naruto. Sakura looked away from them in an attempt to hide her tears, I don't belong with you guys anymore." She muttered taking another step backwards.

"Why did you make us think you were dead all this time?" asked Naruto. Sakura managed to compose herself, "It was easier than letting you accept the truth." She lied; the truth was it was easier on her for them to think she was dead so that she wouldn't have to see them again.

Naruto took another step towards her, "Why did you join?" he asked Sakura. Sakura looked away from him, "I was offered and I accepted." She replied simply.

She felt wind rush passed her and then Neji's energy behind her. "So is that what Konoha ninja's do now?" she asked, "Corner poor defenceless convicts?"

"You're lying." Said Neji coolly from behind her. Sakura giggled slightly, she was slowly regaining control of herself, "Am I now Hyuga?"

"My eyes don't lie." He replied, "What's the real reason? Did they threaten you?" Sakura shook her head and let another giggle erupt through her, "Maybe you two just don't get it." She said pulling out more kunai, "Whatever my reasons were for joining I don't regret it. I'm stronger than ever now and no matter what Sasuke might have told you I'm perfectly capable of being in this organisation."

"You are stronger." Admitted Naruto, "But you could've got just as strong by working with us to restore Konoha."

"I don't give a damn about Konoha anymore!" she lied convincingly, "And I don't give a damn about you!" she managed to stare into his eyes intensely.

Naruto's eyes sparkled slightly with shock and depression. "Sakura-chan…"

"Stop calling me that, how much clearer do I have to make it for you? I. Don't. Want. To. Know. You!" she paused when she felt the approaching chakra's. Neji and Naruto noticed it too.

Through the corner of her eye she noticed a white insect speed towards Naruto. Neji noticed it but in his shock Naruto remained oblivious to the deadly insect.

"No!" she shouted throwing a kunai at it as hard as she could. The kunai skimmed passed Naruto's face causing a small slit in his skin.

The clay insect hit into a tree and was pinned there by the kunai. Sakura executed a number of hand seals as she noticed the giant clay bird fly overhead; she disappeared in a flourish of black cherry blossoms and appeared on top of Deidara's bird. He flew passed the forest and the two disappeared into the trees.

The two landed on a tree branch as the bird disappeared.

"What happened to you Saku-chan?" asked Deidara. Sakura didn't reply she just stood up, "I'm in trouble aren't I?" she questioned looking through the black shadowed trees and towards where she'd just seen Naruto.

Deidara sighed, "You protected a ninja who wasn't in the organisation. Why?"

Sakura looked down, "He's the reason I joined." She explained before turning to walk away, "Where's Itatchi?"

"Gone ahead to report to Leader, I'm walking with you." He smiled, "Do you want to stop at a spa on our way home?" Sakura looked to his smiling face and managed to let out a weak smile, "You always know how to make me feel better Barbie-chan!"

Itatchi walked silently into the Akatsuki base and met Sasori with a half-hearted wave, "How was your trip?" asked Sasori. Itatchi shrugged, "Hn," he replied. "Is Sakura with you?"

Sasori seemed a bit nervous as he asked it, something very unusual for Sasori, "No," replied Itatchi carefully, "I went on ahead, we got some Konoha ANBU issues but Deidara sorted it out."

Sasori nodded sharply, "Leader-sama wants to speak with you." Itatchi's facial expression became dark, his brow creased as his red eyes examined Sasori, "Why?" he asked. Sasori looked to the ground,

"It's about Sakura." He replied quietly.


	14. Ambush

**

* * *

(A.N. HIIII hope you like the chapter, **

**toodles**

**xxXKimmYXxx)**

* * *

Sakura sighed as she sat in the warm water. The woman's spa and men's spa was separated by a wall so she could call over to Deidara to talk to him. "Should we go soon?" she asked. "Nah, they wont miss us, yeah." Came his reply.

Sakura slowly got out of the water, "Well the heat's getting to me a bit I'll see you outside ok?"

"I'll see you in a minute Saku-chan!" he called as Sakura wrapped the towel around her and walked towards the door.

Sakura was changed within a few minutes; she wore a short purple dress with a black Akatsuki cloud on the bottom corner of it.

She had two pouches on her, one full of shuriken and one full of kunai and also two short swords strapped to her lower back, one black and one purple.

She wore ninja boots and an emerald pendent that matched her eyes. It was a Birthday present from the Akatsuki boys. She wore it when she wasn't on missions in case she broke it.

Sakura stepped outside of the spa turning a few heads as she did so. She leaned against the wall of the spa waiting for Deidara to return so they could get back to the base. She was starting to feel homesick; the problem was she didn't know which home she missed. The Akatsuki base or Konoha.

Sakura sighed and pressed her palm against her head, "You've left Sakura." She whispered softly into the slight breeze, "You can't go back now." She looked to her feet deep in thought, "You can never go back."

As she stood against the refreshing breeze of the village that surrounded the spa she felt uneasy. A noxious feeling began to grow in her stomach.

She looked up and down the village; there was something not right about her surroundings. She narrowed her eyes and started examining the buildings. The uneasy feeling grew slowly as a shiver ran slowly down her back, as though an icy finger were tracing her spine.

She'd felt this way before, she couldn't remember when though. She took in slow deep breaths to try and rid herself of the feelings. _Someone's watching me._ She thought.

_Is Deidara playing a trick on me? No he takes ages to dry his hair. There's no way he'd be ready by now. There's someone else… someone as sinister as Leader-Sama or… wait…_

She snapped out of her thoughts as she caught the gleam of a kunai whipping towards her. She dived to the side and somersaulted in the air as she pulled out two kunai.

She threw the kunai harshly, as she landed in a crouch she heard the clash of metal and the two kunai fell to the ground. Sakura got to her feet.

A smile spread slowly across her lips. She pulled out another kunai and dodged the next projectile easily.

She'd figured out that there were two attacking ninja; she'd also figured out that one was hidden in a tree by one of the single floored houses. The other attacker's position, however, remained a mystery to the missing medic Nin as she dodged another three kunai.

She completed a series of hand seals and brought the tree the first attacker was hiding in to life. The tree shook violently as its branches entangled the ninja hidden inside them. She heard a scream and a few cracks as the tree's strong branches crushed the ninja. Sakura smiled at the trickles of blood slipping down the tree trunk.

She spun around and deflected another kunai sharply hearing the metal clash and seeing the spark almost as soon as she'd sensed the oncoming projectile. "So that's where you are." She said quietly still smiling as she completed another series of hand seals.

"Sakura-chan!" she hesitated at the voice, the low familiar slithering tongue spoke her name as though it where a song. She was wrong, there were three attackers. Both of them has masked their chakra scent so Sakura had no idea where they were but she'd finally worked out why she'd been feeling so uneasy.

As the breeze picked up she felt a satisfied smirk spread across her lips. Her hair whipped around her. She completed a hand seal to focus her chakra; her eyes gleamed with excitement. He opened her mouth and whispered into the wind a name that struck fear into many people who knew of it, she used to be one of them but today she said it with a sadistic smile, "Orochimaru." There was a familiar laugh as Sakura found herself surrounded by sound Shinobi

* * *

Naruto and Neji stood before Tsunade. "So she's alive?" repeated Tsunade trying to hide her emotions. The two nodded in unison, "We confronted her but it seems she's pledged allegiance to Akatsuki."

Tsunade's face dropped to one of disappointment, "I see." She said. Naruto's hand moved to his cheek where Sakura's kunai had cut him. "I want to put together a team to go and get her." He declared.

Tsunade's face seemed slightly shocked, "Naruto, if she says she's joined Akatsuki then she's our enemy."

"There's some unseen circumstance." Explained Neji before Naruto would start shouting and get the two of them seriously scolded, "If she were totally loyal to Akatsuki then we would have had a real fight instead she retreated the first chance she got."

Tsunade sat back in her chair and thought for a few moments, "Fine." She said finally, "I will send you two, also Ino and Tenten will go." Naruto and Neji shared a glance as Tsunade continued; "You will leave first thing tomorrow morning, find and take her back by all means necessary."

As the two started walking from the office Naruto gulped, "We're going to have to fight her seriously huh?" he asked. Neji nodded, "It seems so."

* * *

Sakura dodged the sound ninja's kick easily by using her black sword as a shield. She lessened the force on the sword letting the sound ninja fall forwards, she pushed her purple sword through the sound ninja's stomach she sliced through the sound ninja's stomach and spun around at the same time to dodge another attack, she'd taken down around five ninja's and there were twenty left.

They were all very skilled Shinobi and Sakura was beginning to tire. She back flipped to dodge an attack and threw a kunai; she expertly hit the attacking Shinobi.

As she was landing she felt a kunai stab into her arm, she spun around and healed her arm as she did so, she punched the Shinobi in the face, hearing the satisfying series of snaps and cracks she turned and punched another one in the same way.

She was already running low on chakra from all of the healing and her legs were aching. She dodged another attack and punched the sound Shinobi into the one behind her. The two were sent spiralling to the ground and into a tree sending it crashing to the ground.

Sakura was breathing heavily. She fell to her knees and used her palm to hold herself upright, she started to heal her wounds as far as she could without running out of chakra. She coughed out a spurt of blood and got shakily to her feet.

"Well done, Sakura-chan." Called Orochimaru's voice, he seemed to be circling her, she couldn't tell where he was, "I didn't expect you to get this far so uninjured, but you must be tired, maybe you should take a rest."

"Stop calling me Sakura-chan!" she hissed angrily trying to follow his voice. "Poor little Sakura-chan, she feels no fear and yet she fears herself. Are you ready for another change Sakura-chan?"

"I'm fine where I am." She replied coldly. She forced her muscles to work for her, ignoring every signal of pain she was receiving.

"Sakura managed to pinpoint the voice as he made his next comment she pulled out a kunai and threw it in the direction of the voice with lightning speed. She heard Orochimaru gasp in pain.

She turned around as something landed beside her.

* * *

"So why am I here and not Sakura?" asked Itatchi crossing his arms, Leader's hologram wavered slightly as he sighed, "She's not back yet and we don't know when he'll make a move."

Sasori huffed angrily, "You're sure about this?" he questioned again. Leader nodded, "Without a doubt, Orochimaru is after her."

"Yeah I could have guessed that." Replied Kisame, "But what you said about…"

* * *

An explosion blew Sakura away. She went flying through a tree and into a sturdy wall.

She heard the stone crack around her before she fell forwards onto her knees. A huge cloud of dust began to settle as she looked up at the approaching figure.

* * *

"Yes, that's also true, I've had suspicions for a while but after I found the back and forth secret letters my suspicions were confirmed."

"I don't believe it." Muttered Kisame…

* * *

Sakura wiped away a trickle of blood from the side of her mouth, "No way." She whispered. The blonde stared at her coldly. "Saku-chan you're not being given a choice in this." The figure explained.

* * *

"Deidara is a traitor." 


	15. broken friendships and new Alliances

**(A.N. OMG this story's coming to an end soon cries but i may write a sequel to it if i get enough reveiws hint hint **

**Oh and can someone tell me what OOC means please????**

**see ya**

**xxXKimmYXxx) **

* * *

"Deidara…" Sakura's voice was wispy as she stood up, "Why?"

"I have my reasons." Replied Deidara reaching into the pouch at his side.

Sakura's eyes were wide with shock. "Y-you can't possibly have faked everything… we're best friends…"

"You need to learn that there's no such thing as friends in the real world Sakura." Sakura pulled out a kunai, "So we're fighting?" she asked sadly.

Deidara looked to the ground, "No, you wont be much of a fight for me, not when you're that injured." Sakura gained a fighting stance.

* * *

Itatchi clenched his fist as he walked out of the room, Sasori and Kisame closely following him. "So what do we do about this?" asked Kisame, "Leader said it's up to us how we deal with him." 

Itatchi didn't stop walking, "Orochimaru has his eyes on Sakura right? He's been using Deidara to get information on her so that he can ambush her, Deidara was the one who convinced me to go on ahead and now he and Sakura are alone." Kisame held a blank expression. "Or are they?" questioned Sasori with realisation, although it was hard to tell seeing as he barely showed any emotion.

Kisame paused as the two walked on ahead, "Wait up." He called, "What do you mean?" Sasori sighed, "Deidara is helping Orochimaru to capture Sakura." He said slowly, as though he were talking to a five year old. Kisame thought for a moment, "Wait I've got it!" he snapped his fingers, "Deidara is a threat to Sakura, lets go!" The three walked out of the base.

Kisame pulled his sword onto his back, "So we're going to save Sakura?" he asked. Sasori looked to Itatchi. Itatchi looked to the ground, "No," he replied, "We're going to help her, a girl like Haruno doesn't need saving."

* * *

Sakura opened her eyes slowly; her head was aching. She tried to comfort the pulsing pain with some of her chakra but failed miserably. 

Her vision seemed to fall into place as did her memories. "Damn Deidara." She growled as she remembered the pain of one of his explosives. She looked to her hands; they were shackled to a tough stone wall.

She noticed the carved symbols around them indicating that the chains that bound her were unbreakable, and by the feel of things they also drained chakra. She looked then to her legs, she couldn't move them, there were tight scrolls strapped to her legs. "They really went all out on the restraints." She muttered.

She was still wearing her tattered dress; the draught in the room was making her shiver uncontrollably. She looked around the room, it was made of stone; no doubt it was covered in seals. She thought.

She noticed a small door above her in the ceiling that reached to about five times her own height. Anyone who knew how to use their chakra could climb up and down that ledge easily.

There were shallow cuts surrounding her arms and legs, _I was probably dragged here and dropped in, although I don't appear to have broken anything._

The room wasn't as small as a usual jail cell; it was probably as big as a living room. Small torches lit the room in flickering light causing Sakura's shadow to appear to be moving around her.

Sakura sighed. There was another huge draught as the door above her opened. She looked upwards at the bright light.

Someone dropped into the room and landed right in front of her. Sakura looked up at the figure in disgust, no words left her though only the hatred in her eyes.

"Ah, Sakura chan you have finally woken up." Mused Orochimaru as he kneeled in front of her. Sakura snorted, she looked away from him.

"I can let you out of here." He offered trying to gain her attention, "If you join me I'll let you out and you can be in fresh air again." Sakura turned to face him slowly.

She spat in his face and moved to hit him with her shackled hands. Orochimaru raised his palm and the shackles rushed through the wall, dragging Sakura with them, she hit into the wall.

She fell to her useless knees facing the wall. "You'll get awfully lonely down here Sakura-chan." Said Orochimaru, "Wouldn't you like to see your friends again?" she still didn't reply.

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow then got to his feet smoothly, "Think it over Sakura-chan, I am a generous man so I'll wait until you break, remember, my offer is always there for you." He walked up the wall, using his chakra and exited through the trap door, "Think it through Sakura." He called before slamming the door closed again.

The torches flickered as the shackles loosened on the wall, Sakura flopped backwards and landed harshly on the ground. She clenched her fists, "No." she said softly.

* * *

Deidara stopped Orochimaru as he passed him, "What's going on? You said you'd make her join." Orochimaru fixed his old friend with a strange gaze, "She'll come around to our way of thinking soon." 

"Saku-Chan's the most stubborn person I know she won't come around."

"Well then," replied Orochimaru passing the blonde haired traitor, "I will get to have some fun whilst torturing her into it, I must go and train Sasuke now, take care old friend."

Deidara stared after him; a look of guilt possessed his face.

* * *

Naruto landed in front of him the carnage in the area was terrible. Ino kneeled next to one of the bodies. Her blonde hair was down to her lower back in its tie. 

She checked the wounds on the bodies, "It was definitely her." She muttered standing up from the sound ninja. Her blue eyes examined the crushed body that was still in the tree's mangled branches, "I never knew she could be so violent." She whispered.

Neji was inspecting a crevice of cracks in the wall. "She was thrown into here by some sort of explosion." He explained running his hand over the cracks.

Tenten stood up from where she was standing, she was holding a piece of ripped fabric; she was standing next to a tree. The tree had a splash of blood running down it.

"Guys." She called. The three stepped over to her, "What is it?" asked Naruto. Tenten held out the fabric, "Isn't this part of Orochimaru's uniform?" she asked with a grim look spread across her face.

* * *

"Look guys, a bunch of kids beat us to it!" called a gruff voice from far off. The three turned to the spa. Leaning against the wall was a blue figure; he wore an Akatsuki uniform. 

Kisame waved at the unsuspecting Shinobi. Naruto stepped forwards, "You're Kisame right?" he demanded pointing his finger of blame, "You know where Sakura is don't you?" Neji held him back. "Me?" Kisame pointed to himself with an innocent grin, which was a difficult task due to his shark like teeth.

"We don't know where Sakura is." Called a voice from above them, Tenten took a step backwards when she noticed the cloaked figure sitting on the branch of the tree. His red hair was waving in the wind and his young face was staring coldly at her.

Naruto whirled around with the still extended finger of blame. He was shocked at the fact that two Shinobi made it passed them. Neji was obviously pissed off about it.

The red head continued with what he was saying, "We were hoping you could give us some assistance." He looked to a spot right behind Ino, "Right Itatchi?"

Ino turned around slightly, there was a tall figure standing behind her, she leaped away from him next to Tenten. Itatchi replied with a small, "Hn,"

Naruto's finger of blame whirled to Itatchi, "Where is she Uchiha? Huh? Where is she?" he raved angrily.

Itatchi sighed, "I'm guessing with Deidara and Orochimaru." He replied tediously. Sasori jumped from the tree and landed next to Tenten, "We know where they are." He explained.

"But," continued Kisame, kicking off the wall and stepping behind Neji and Naruto, "We can't get in by ourselves."

"Is this some sort of twisted request for our help?" Asked Ino whirling to face Sasori. "As if we'd help a bunch of low-life murdering…"

"Ino!" said Tenten, she sounded insulted, "Sakura joined remember?" Ino deflated slightly, "Oh yeah."

Neji turned to Itatchi, "Why do you need our help?" he asked, "You are, after all, Akatsuki you should be able to get in easily." Itatchi sighed.

"Our comrade, Deidara, betrayed us and handed Sakura over to Orochimaru." Explained Kisame, "So he knows all of our weakness' even Itatchi's."

"Shut up you idiot." Ordered Sasori, "They're possible enemies." Kisame shut up straight away.

Itatchi looked to the four Shinobi in front of them, "Do we have a deal?" he asked. Neji looked to Naruto, Ino and Tenten, "I think we should."

"What no way!" shouted Ino.

"We don't know where she is." Reasoned Tenten, "And we're here for Sakura, not them." Naruto only nodded. Ino sighed, "Fine." She muttered.

Naruto stepped forwards, "We will work with you on three conditions." He said, "Condition one, you don't turn on us randomly and attack us, condition two, you tell us why Sakura left, and condition three you give Sakura a choice of where she wants to go."

The three missing Nin looked to each other then all nodded. "We wont attack you until after this mission." Assured Sasori, "We'll give Sakura the choice but she might choose us you know. We are her family now."

"And the reason she joined?" persisted Ino stepping forwards. Itatchi looked to Naruto.

"Loyalties to her friends." When he noticed Naruto's confused expression he added, "Maybe you should hear this from Sakura, but for now, we have no time."

With a short nod the seven of them ran through the village, the three Akatsuki members in front.

* * *

**A.N. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG (Just wanted to write that) please reveiw people, I'll give out mufins...**

**Ja Ne**

**xxXKimmYXxx**


	16. The big break in

**(A.N. Last but one chapter people!!! annnyyywho i hope you like it and please reveiw... I'll give you a poison applee if you do cheesy smile**

**toodles**

**xxXKimmYXxx)**

* * *

Sakura was being held against the wall by Orochimaru's snake hand technique. She was trapped in a powerful genjutsu.

He dropped her to the ground. He took a step backwards and held his head, "What a twisted mind you have child." He muttered before looking upwards.

He started to walk up the wall towards the trap door. Sakura couldn't speak she just lay there. When images of his smiling face started flashing through her pained mind she screamed, a wordless scream of rage.

Orochimaru was already out of the trap door. He turned at the echoing angry scream. A sadistic smile spread across his face. "Not long now." He mused as he walked away cheerfully.

* * *

The seven Shinobi made it to the concealed Sound base quickly. As they approached the door Neji held up his hand in signal for them to wait, "There's an army worth of sound Ninja approaching." He explained.

As he finished talking the hundreds of sound ninja came into view. Tenten pulled the scroll from her back, "I can handle this." She said lightly.

Neji turned, "I'll help you." He declared. Kisame grasped the handle of his sword, "Itatchi," he called to his comrade, "Make sure you bring her back, and kill Deidara if you get the chance." A bloodthirsty grin possessed his face, "Time for some fun." He said running right into the middle of the sound ninja army.

"Good luck!" called Tenten before summoning a spiky bomb and throwing it into the army. She ran forwards, Neji nodded to Naruto and Ino. He ran after Tenten.

Itatchi stepped forwards and knocked on the door. Ino laughed, "The door isn't going to open for you just by knocking you know!" she yelled. She started performing hand seals. "Mind transfer jutsu!" she called. Her body fell into Naruto's arms.

Ino appeared in the mind of a patrolling guard. She walked over to the main door. She noticed a small hand print reader, she pressed her palm into it and the door opened.

She completed another hand seal as the three Shinobi, and her limp body, walked through the door, "Kai!" she called. She re-entered her own body. Itatchi glared at the guard as he regained consciousness. The guard fainted.

* * *

Sakura was still lying on the ground; she'd given up on trying to sit up. She was so tired. She was still shivering uncontrollably as the trap door opened again.

Deidara jumped down next to her, "Saku-chan." He whispered. Sakura looked to him, her eyes showed hatred and rage, but she didn't move to attack him or bite him; she just stared at him.

"Why don't you just join? We can be a team." Sakura started laughing dryly, "I thought there was no such thing as friends in the real world."

Deidara sighed, "I didn't mean that." He muttered. Sakura looked to him, "Deidara." She said as he was thinking of leaving her, "What?" he asked.

Sakura stared at him for a few moments in silence; "Uchiha, Sasori and Kisame will kill you for this. If I'm around when that happens, I'll help them." Deidara stared at her in slight shock, "I'm in the protection of the sound village,"

"You don't honestly think that they'll be any match for them do you? Deidara you might as well take your own life, because they don't show any mercy on traitors. Especially if you're someone they trusted."

Deidara stood up slowly, "Shut up." He whispered. Sakura moved her head slightly to follow his movements, "You're going to die Deidara, you're going to die by their hands and it'll be good riddance."

Deidara growled, "Shut up!" he shouted kicking her in the stomach as hard as he could. Sakura stopped breathing for a few seconds then managed to compose herself in time to laugh at him, "You aren't scared are you Deidara?" she asked before his foot connected to her stomach again.

* * *

The four Shinobi made it to a large room, "I can sense Deidara." Muttered Sasori, "He's behind that door." Ino looked above them, "I think we have a slight delay." She muttered pointing upwards.

Around fifty sound ninja surrounded the upper baloneys. Ino pulled out a kunai, "You guys move on I'll take care of them." She said. Sasori nodded, "Take your time Itatchi." He said stepping next to the blonde haired kunoichi. Itatchi nodded, he looked to Naruto; "We wont be long." He murmured.

* * *

Deidara closed the trap door behind him and stepped over to the door. "Deidara!" called a voice behind him. Deidara paused; he turned around and saw Itatchi, and an ANBU ninja standing by another door, on the other side of the room. "Itatchi." He greeted. Itatchi stepped forwards, "Where is she?" he asked tediously.

He gestured to the trap door, "Is she down there?" Deidara gulped, "Why would I tell you?" he questioned as Itatchi took a step closer to him, "If you tell me where she is I'll let Sakura deal with you how she wants, you don't want me to have to deal with you do you?"

Deidara moved his hand to the bag of clay at his side, "She's down there." He pointed with his free hand to the door, "But she's a bit disoriented." he explained. Itatchi stepped forwards; he narrowed his eyes.

"Blonde boy." He called. Naruto looked up at him, "Can you handle him?" asked Itatchi. Naruto nodded. Itatchi jumped away from one of Deidara's bombs. Naruto pulled out a kunai and threw it at the clay bomb, knocking it out of range before it exploded.

* * *

Sakura didn't move when she heard the trap door open, she was bruised and her stomach was bleeding. Her hair had fallen in strands in front of her eyes as she stared blankly at the far wall. She was shivering.

Itatchi could hardly believe it was Sakura. He kneeled next to her and moved her hair from her face, "Haruno?" he said. He got no reply. "What did he do to you?" he whispered noticing the cuts and bruises. He ripped the scrolls from her legs, "Haruno?" he called lightly. Still, he got no reply.

Sakura stared through him blankly. Itatchi noticed the burn marks on her skin, "Deidara," he growled. He looked to the shackles on her arms and grasped the metal between his fingers tightly.

"Kai!" he called, releasing the seal on the shackles. As he did so, a spark of life went into Sakura's eyes. "Haruno?" he called again. He still didn't get a reply. It was at that moment he noticed the genjutsu on her, how could he have missed it, it was such a stupid mistake for a genjutsu user to make.

He pressed his palm against her forehead lightly, "Kai." He called again. Sakura seemed to wake up. She looked upwards, "Uchiha?" she whispered. She healed her wounds automatically Itatchi breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought I'd wasted my time for a moment there." He said coldly.

Sakura sat up and looked to the shackles around her wrists. "Are you… real?" she asked slowly. Itatchi sighed, "Stop acting like an idiot Haruno." He paused at the slightly dazed expression on her face, "What?" he asked.

Sakura smiled slightly, "You _are_ real." She replied. She pulled her arms apart, shattering the metal around them easily; she almost tackled Itatchi with a hug.

She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and buried her head in his chest. "Um…" stuttered Itatchi in shock, "H-Haruno what are you doing?" Sakura let go of him and sat away, turning her back to him as she did so.

She sat bolt upright as a red glow erupted on her face, "Um… I um… slipped." She replied with a nervous cough. Itatchi got slowly to his feet, "Lets go Haruno; we've got to get out of here now." Sakura got to her feet with a shiver.

Itatchi sighed and took off his cloak, "Here." He said throwing the warm material to her, "Just don't get too much blood on it ok?" Sakura caught it, "Thanks." She replied, feeling a little silly for shivering.

She put on the cloak. The warm material felt nice against her shivering skin. Itatchi passed her the weapons she usually used. She looked upwards as she secured the straps and belts around her waist and back.

"Uchiha?" She asked. Itachi looked to her to show he was listening, "Are there a lot of enemy ninja up there?" Itatchi nodded. A smile crept across her face, "Good." She replied, "Lets go."

* * *

Naruto dodged another explosion; Deidara had just taken out another lot of his shadow clones, "Damn it!" he said.

_I can't get a long-range fighter with my short-range attacks; I need to think of something better to do. _He thought before dodging another homing bomb, this time it leaped off the wall and followed him, "Damn it!" he shouted.

Just as the bomb was about to hit him a kunai deflected it. "DEIDARA!" Called an angry voice.

Deidara turned slightly in shock, as did Naruto. Sakura was standing, by the open trap door, her hair and the Akatsuki cloak whipping around her. Her face was set in an angry scowl.

Itatchi jumped up and landed next to her. He kicked the trap door shut. "Like I said Deidara, I'll let Haruno deal with you." he said with an evil smirk.


	17. confessions and choices

**A.N. OMG the last EVER chapter of this fic, it brings a tear to my eye. Anyway hope you like it and... yeah...**

* * *

Naruto was frozen in shock; he pulled the mask from his face, "Sakura?" Sakura didn't turn to face him, "Don't get involved." She ordered coldly.

Deidara gulped, he pulled out the clay from his pouch; "You want another beating Saku-chan?" he asked. Sakura pulled out two kunai, "Shut up!" she hissed.

She leaped forwards; he dodged her and slapped the clay bomb against her back as he sped passed her. Sakura dragged the cloak from her back and threw it in the air along with the bomb. It exploded, sending pieces of the black and red cloth fluttering to the ground.

* * *

Itatchi sighed as a piece of his cloak fluttered into his open hand, "I knew I should have let her freeze." He muttered, inwardly crying. _My lucky ribbon! _

Naruto stood next to him, "Why aren't we helping?" he asked. Itatchi raised an eyebrow at the blonde haired Shinobi, "She'd probably kill us if we did, besides this is her battle. She's got to fight this alone."

Naruto looked back to Sakura, who was standing angrily clutching her short swords, one in a horizontal defensive position and the other in an offensive position. "And if she loses?" he asked. "Then she loses." Replied Itatchi.

* * *

Sakura leaped away from an oncoming bomb. "Why?" she demanded trying to kick him in the face, he grasped her leg and threw her away from him, "I have always been on Orochimaru's side; did you think our friendship would change that?"

She landed in a crouching position on the ground, "But you acted like a best friend to me!" she looked up in time to dodge another bomb. Deidara was running out of clay he created another bomb, "I only acted as a friend to you to give information to Orochimaru!"

He threw the bomb, Sakura dodged and was sent flying towards a wall, she spun around so that her feet pressed against the vertical stone and kicked off it.

"You Bastard!" She rushed Deidara and punched him flat out in the face; she continued hitting him, "I trusted you! I told you EVERYTHING! I let you know everything about me and you betrayed me to Orochimaru!"

She kicked him on the side of the face. Deidara went through two walls and rolled outside. He got to his feet. He was very badly bruised and out of clay. He stared at her as Sakura pulled out two kunai.

"I'm sorry Saku-chan." He muttered before disappearing in a puff of smoke, "Hey!" shouted Sakura, "I'm not done with you, you coward!"

"Haruno…" called Itatchi. Sakura turned around to face him. Itatchi raised an eyebrow, "Feeling any better?" he asked monotonously. Sakura shook her head, "He's not dead yet." She replied replacing her kunai.

Itatchi sighed, "Well he wont be back for a while, he's probably gone to protect Orochimaru." Sakura nodded, "Damn them all! She snarled stamping her foot on the ground, causing a huge dome to form beneath her foot.

Itatchi rolled his eyes. "I'm glad you're ok Sakura-chan." Said Naruto. Sakura looked to him, she nodded slowly, "Wait a minute, why are you two working together?" Naruto grasped her wrist and dragged her forwards; "There's no time we have to get everyone out of here." Itatchi's eyebrow twitched in rage as Naruto dragged Sakura off.

* * *

Ino smiled; she was currently occupying the body of an enemy sound ninja. She stabbed one ninja and as a different ninja went to stab her she released the jutsu, but instead of transferring into her own body she moved into the ninja that had just stabbed her, she'd been doing this for ages and had taken down nearly half of the ninja's.

"Damn it where did that witch go now?" asked one of the sound ninja before he was stabbed by one of Sasori's puppets.

The puppet was weaving in and out of sound ninja killing them as they went. They managed to take every sound ninja down until there was only two left standing, one of them was Ino. "Kai." called Ino. She re-entered her body, which was hidden beneath the earth as Sasori killed both of the ninja.

Ino's hand erupted from the ground and she pulled herself through the earth, she coughed onto her hand and wiped herself, "Great now my outfit is stained." She cursed. Sasori rolled his eyes. Ino fell into a sitting position, out of breath.

Sasori looked to the doorway as Naruto dragged Sakura through the door. He raised an eyebrow as an angry Itatchi followed. "Deidara?" he questioned.

Itatchi shook his head, "He got away, and he probably took Orochimaru with him." Sakura nearly fell over one of the sound ninja's, "Naruto!" she shouted. She snatched her hand away from him. "You're such a Baka you know that?" she shouted.

"Billboard brow?" Questioned a familiar voice. Sakura turned slowly to face her old rival, "Ino-pig?" Sakura froze for a few seconds before Ino got to her feet and ran at her, tackling her to the ground with a hug.

"Ino get off!" shouted Sakura. She got to her feet. Ino stood up next to her, "What happened to you? We all thought you were dead." Sakura shrugged, "Joined Akatsuki." She replied.

Ino nodded, she seemed to take the information better than Naruto, "So who's that?" she whispered pointing to Itatchi. "Who, Uchiha?"

"_Itatchi_ Uchiha?" she questioned excitedly, "He's even better looking than Sasuke."

"Ino!" Sakura went bright red, "We're not going out or anything." She hissed. Ino looked down, "You should, you know if I wasn't engaged to Choji…"

"You got ENGAGED?!" shouted Sakura. Ino nodded, "Look!" She pulled out a small diamond ring from her pocket, "Whoa…" muttered Sakura.

"Sakura." Called Sasori, "We'd better get moving, we don't know when more will show up." Sakura nodded, "Lets go." She ran forwards and to the doors leading outside. They were locked. Sakura punched through the door.

* * *

Neji took down the last sound ninja. He fell over. Tenten was lying flat out on the ground, exhausted.

Kisame leaned against the wall. "They're taking their time." He complained. He was re-wrapping his sword. Neji turned as the door went flying through the air, he ducked to dodge it; "Sorry!" called Sakura, stepping out of the building.

Naruto and Ino ran over to Neji and Tenten, "Are you injured?" asked Ino. Tenten pointed to her leg, a kunai was sticking out of it, "I would have removed it myself but it's lodged in there." She explained.

Ino knelt next to her and started healing the wound. Sakura looked to Itatchi, Kisame and Sasori, "All went well I see?" she asked Kisame. Kisame nodded, "Not a single wound." He boasted.

"You know, you guys didn't have to come and get me. I could have got out myself, eventually." Sasori crossed his arms, "Yeah, but we wanted to kill Deidara and the base was sort of lonely without you."

Kisame leaned in, "Plus Itachi insisted we went to help you." Itatchi thumped him across the head. "Shut up." He muttered, "I was hear purely to kill Deidara, you just happened to be here too so I thought I'd make tings easy on myself." Kisame leaned in again, "In other words he just wanted to make sure you got out ok." Another thump to the head shut him up.

Sakura smiled slightly then turned to the Konoha ninja's, "Why are you here?" she asked. Naruto stared at her closely, "We wanted to give you a choice, you can come home with us, or you can stay in Akatsuki."

Sakura looked to the ground, "You know, when I was in Konoha I was depressed, everything was so heavy. Life seemed so meaningless and my mind began to travel to revenge. But when I almost got my revenge I realised that it isn't really what I wanted, I just wanted a home, where I could trust people not to leave me alone but still trust in my abilities. I don't think I'll ever have that in Konoha. I'm sorry Naruto, Ino, Tenten, Neji. I don't want to have to fight any of you, but I'm happy in Akatsuki, I'm respected and looked after, I have a real family."

Naruto nodded slowly, "I thought about as much." He replied sadly, "But Sakura-chan, promise me something."

"Yeah?"

"Don't change, and hopefully the next time we meet it wont be as awkward as it is now." Sakura nodded, "I promise." She replied.

Ino ran forwards and hugged Sakura tightly, "You _have_ to come to our wedding, if you don't I'll hunt you down," she thrust a piece of paper into Sakura's hands, "Here's an invite, don't forget about us ok?"

She stepped backwards and started tree hopping, Tenten waved, "Bye." Neji nodded goodbye and the two of them jumped into the far off trees after Ino, "How do we explain this to Tsunade-sama?" called Tenten.

Naruto walked up to Sakura, "Did you join because of me Sakura?" Sakura noticed the guilt that played across his face, "No." she lied convincingly, "Don't blame yourself for anything Naruto, and when they make you Hokage I'll be he proudest kunoichi in the world." She smiled at him; Naruto hugged her – causing another angry Itatchi eyebrow twitch –

"Look after yourself Sakura, don't kill too many people ok?" Sakura coughed, "I'm an assassin, I can't make that promise, bye Naruto-nee-san." She said. Naruto smiled at her use of name. He took a step away from her, "Bye Sakura-chan." He waved before jumping after everyone else.

Sakura wiped a tear from her eye before turning to face the others, "So are we going home?" Kisame nodded, "Home sounds good." He said walking off. Sasori followed him.

Sakura went to follow them but one hand grasping her wrist made her stop; she turned to Itatchi, "What?" she asked.

Itatchi looked into her eyes, "Haruno, I'm sorry about our argument." Sakura held a blank expression, she remembered their fight over the assassination job then waved dismissively, "Don't worry about it Uchiha."

"It's just that I was jealous." He avoided her eye this time. Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Jealous of what?" she asked. "I don't like other men kissing you. Especially when I haven't had the chance to tell you…"

Sakura was blushing, "T-tell me what?"

Itatchi sighed and looked away from her, "I love you Sakura." Sakura paused in shock. Itatchi walked ahead of her in order to hide his growing blush. "Itatchi-kun." She called after him.

Itatchi turned around. Sakura stepped up to him; she wrapped her arms around his neck, "I love you too." She whispered. She stared up at him with a smile. Itatchi leaned in and kissed her.

As he pulled back a smirk spread across his face, "Sorry, I slipped." He mimicked her earlier excuse. Sakura laughed a little, "Shut up Baka." She said before kissing him again.

* * *

Kisame turned around, "Whoa." He whispered. Sasori turned; curious at what his comrade was gawping at, "It's about time." He muttered, "Come on Kisame." He called walking ahead of the shark man.

* * *

Ino and Tenten were hiding in the trees, "See I told you sending clones off with the boys was a good idea." Muttered Ino. "They're so cute." Squeaked Tenten.

"What are you two doing?" called a voice from behind them. Tenten and Ino jumped and turned around, Neji had fixed them with a suspicious glare, "Get back to Konoha." He said tediously.

The two girls sighed and jumped to the next tree. Neji watched until they were gone and then sat on the branch watching Itatchi and Sakura kiss, "That's better." He said with a dark chuckle.

* * *

Orochimaru was deep in thought, "So what do you propose?" he asked. Deidara's face was scared he frowned. Sasuke was also in the room, "I have a few suggestions on how to hurt him." He stated. Deidara nodded in approval, "She will pay for what she's done to my face." Orochimaru laughed, "I have trained you both well." He observed, "Revenge is such a sweet thing."

* * *

**A.N So i've got some ideas for a sequel if you'd be interested in reading it... or if you just want tto read about Deidara getting his face punched in some more and possibley Sasuke and Orochimaru... lease reveiw and let me know... anyway i'm going to stop typing now... byyee ((Sad opra type music plays)) **

**toodles**

**xxXKimmYXxx**


	18. the sequal is up!

**_THE SEQUAL IS UP GUYS!!! Yay, I just thought I'd leave a little message up here to let you all know, and seeing as it is not allowed for me to only leave an authors note here I am leaving a little bit of the first chappy here, the story's called Sakura's struggle, yes another crappy title please read and enjoy!!_**

**_xxXKimmYXxx

* * *

_**

Sakura pulled the bandanna from her forehead she dropped it into the warm water and tried to wash the blood off it. She was on her own in the Akatsuki base dressed in a black silk robe and had her hair tied in a bun, secures with red chopsticks.

"Come on!" she muttered angrily. "I never knew he'd bleed this much." Her face was smeared in blood; she hadn't had time for a shower yet because since she'd got back from her latest mission she'd been desperately tying to save her clothes. She groaned when she noticed the stains weren't coming out.

Her head was spinning; the fight had taken up most of her chakra and made her lose a lot of blood, her torn blood shed dress was hanging out of her window, drying in the breeze.

She'd got all of the stains out of her dress and boots but her bandana had suffered a fatal stain. She leaned against the sink she was washing her clothes in and sighed, her chakra was taking a while to come back and she was feeling dizzy, she should rest. She picked the soaking wet bandana in her hands and sighed, "This was my best one too." She moaned. She wrung it out and stared at it for a while longer.

A long sigh escaped her lips as she passed her long mirror, her face was smeared in her victim's blood, and her own. "I need a shower." She walked into the bathroom and switched on the warm water, letting her hair loose around her and watching the blood spiral off her into the plughole.

She stepped out of the steam of the shower, rubbing her hair with a towel; she tied it above her head in a turban and wrapped another pink fluffy towel around her body she stepped out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. She paused a small 'eep' exited her mouth as she saw a man sitting on her bed.


End file.
